Hero Region 1 DVD Available Today
November 30, 2004
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Hero,
legendary director Zhang Yimou's first
endeavour in filming the wuxia
genre — a Quentin Tarantino presentation,
starring Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-wai,
Maggie Cheung Man-yuk,
Chen Daoming, Donnie Yen Ji-dan
and Zhang Ziyi and choreographed by Tony Ching Siu-tung —
will be released today on Region 1 DVD.
Product Title: Hero (US Version)
Region Code: 1
Picture Format: NTSC
Stars: Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Dao Ming
Other Stars: Donnie Yen, Liu Zhong Yuan, Zhang Tian Yong, Qin Yan, Chang Xiao Yang, Zhang Ya Kun
Director: Zhang Yimou
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for stylized martial arts violence, a scene of sensuality
Run Time: 99 Minutes
Release Date: November 30, 2004
UPC: 786936259223
Genre: Foreign
Language: Mandarin
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital 5.1
Publisher: Buena Vista Home Entertainment (JP)
Extras:
- Subtitles: English, Spanish
- Audio Tracks: Mandarin, English, French
- "Hero Defined" - a look at the epic masterpiece
- Storyboards
- Inside the Action: A Conversation with Quentin Tarantino
The new Hero Region 1 DVD can be purchased through our Yesasia Store...
Related links:
Related discussion:
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Zhang Ziyi In Daily Variety
November 18, 2004
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Zhang Ziyi
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In Variety's seventh annual edition of Women in Showbiz, Daily Variety
celebrates the achievements of a few good women. Of the two actresses featured in the November 16th issue, Zhang Ziyi is one.
The other is Annette Benning.
The following is an interview with Ziyi from the special issue:
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Zhang Ziyi scored with international audiences playing heroines who are alternatively fierce and vulnerable in films
including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,
Hero and the upcoming
House of Flying Daggers.
But judging from the 25-year-old Chinese actress' appearance during a recent sit-down at the
Regent Beverly Wilshire,
one could easily imagine her among a gaggle of teenage girls shopping on nearby Rodeo Drive. Her manner is shy, girlish even,
as she points to the shaft of sunlight that paints a rainbow across the tablecloth in the hotel's dinning room.
Yet this is a girl who vanquishes dozens of foes in Crouching Tiger and crosses swords with an entire regiment of assassins
in Daggers.
Her beauty is so enthralling that more than 100 Web sites are slavishly devoted to her. In his review of her film debut in
The Road Home,
USA Today critic Mike Clark called her "the camera's muse that the lens adores."
Her stardom has eclipsed Asian leading ladies Gong Li
and Michelle Yeoh, both of whom play supporting parts to Zhang's title
role in Memoirs of a Geisha,
her first English-language lead, which is shooting in L.A. with Rob Marshall
at the helm.
In the film, based on Arthur Golden's bestseller,
Zhang plays Sayuri, the orphaned daughter of a fisherman who grows up to become a leading geisha in pre-WWII Kyoto. While
she played a Japanese princess in Raccoon Palace
for the legendary Seijun Suzuki, Geisha presented
its own cross-cultural challenges.
"We had to learn how to speak English with a British accent," Zhang explains, in English, while also relying on an interpreter.
"And we had to learn the old Japanese style: how to bow, how to kneel, how to walk a certain way, how to dance the traditional
Japanese dance."
For a woman who studied folk and modern dance at the Beijing Dance Academy from the age of 6, Zhang approaches roles with
the kind of physicality and grace that is rare among her American counterparts, but with an emotional range that reflects
her Stanislavsky training.
And while American critics seem more preoccupied by her beauty rather than her acting, Zhang is her own harshest critic.
"I always try to hold on to my own judgment of my performances," she says. "Putting all of my heart into each role and
masking sure that I'm doing the best I can is what is most important to me."
—Steve Chagollan
Role model: Al Pacino
Career inspiration:
"I turned to acting because I was a dance student and there really is no future in dance."
Big break: "(Director) Zhang Yimou gave me
the opportunity to become an actress."
Upcoming: Purple Butterfly,
directed by Ye Lou (Nov. 26), House of Flying Daggers,
her third film with Yimou (Dec. 3), and Memoirs of a Geisha, for director Rob Marshall and Sony Pictures/Dreamworks
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AFI Fest House of Flying Daggers Screening Afterparty
November 04, 2004
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As was previously reported on Friday, September 24 (reference),
House of Flying Daggers
(Shi Mian Mai Fu - "No Way Out", aka Lovers) — director Zhang Yimou's second wuxia
film since 2002's internationally successful, Oscar nominated Hero,
starring Zhang Ziyi, Andy Lau and
Takeshi Kaneshiro (Jin Chengwu) and choreographed by Tony Ching Siu-tung —
will screen at AFI FEST 2004 (aka the 18th AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival)
on Saturday, November 6, 2004 at the Arclight Theater in Hollywood, California.
To celebrate the film's screening, AFI FEST 2004 will be holding a post screening party (the Premiere Film & Music Lounge, aka Premiere Lounge),
to be hosted by White Lotus and Premiere Magazine
on Saturday, November 6, 2004. Doors open at 10:30 PM. Expected to be in attendance will be members of the film's cast, including Ziyi.
Party location and info:
White Lotus
1743 North Cahuenga Boulevard
Hollywood, California
Reservations: (323) 466-1268
Screening location and info:
The Arclight Theater
6360 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, California
Lobby: (323) 464-1478
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Zhang Ziyi Nominated For Golden Horse Best Leading Actress Award
November 04, 2004
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2046,
director Wong Kar-wai's long-awaited sequel of sorts to his
2000 art-house hit In the Mood for Love,
starring Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi,
Maggie Cheung,
Chang Chen,
Gong Li,
Carina Lau,
Takuya Kimura,
Faye Wong and
Dong Jie, among others,
has been nominated for 8 Golden Horse Awards, Taiwan's
equivalent of the Oscar, more than any other single film,
at the 41st Golden Horse Film Awards, including a
Best Leading Actress Award nomination for Zhang Ziyi.
Though Wong Kar-wai was not nominated for Best Director, other nominations for the film include Best Film,
Best Lead Actor (Tony Leung), Best Cinematography (Cristopher Doyle,
Lai Yiu-fai and Kwan Pun-leung),
Best Art Direction (William Chang),
Best Make-Up and Costume Design (William Chang),
Best Original Film Score (Shigeru Umebayashi and
(Peer Raben),
Best Sound Effects (Tu Du-che).
With celebrated Hong Kong director
Ann Hui heading this year's selection committee, winners
of the 41st Golden Horse Film Awards will be announced at the awards ceremony in Taichung City on 4 December, 2004.
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2046 Wins Fipresci Jury Award
November 04, 2004
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2046,
director Wong Kar-wai's long-awaited sequel of sorts to his
2000 art-house hit In the Mood for Love,
starring Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi,
Maggie Cheung,
Chang Chen,
Gong Li,
Carina Lau,
Takuya Kimura,
Faye Wong and
Dong Jie, among others,
has won the Fipresci Jury Feature Film Award, the International Critic's Prize, by majority of vote, at the 49th
Valladolid International Film Festival, which ended on Saturday, October 30, 2004, in Valladolid, Spain.
In addition, the film's cinematographer, the world acclaimed Cristopher Doyle
(aka Du Kefeng), who was also cinematographer for Hero,
won the Best Director of Photography Award for his work on 2046.
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