Ci-contre : Dernière participation américaine pour Zhang Ziyi, dans Les Cavaliers de l’Apocalypse, sorti en avril 2009. En haut : Shu Qi dirigée par Fatih Akin, dans New York I Love You, sur les écrans le 14 avril. mai 2010 www.cotemagazine.com METROPOLITAN FILMEXPORT METROPOLITAN FILMEXPORT CHINAWOOD VS HOLLYWOOD… Hengdian in the province of Zhejiang, 400km from Shanghai, is thought to be one of the biggest studios in the world, with recreations down to the smallest details of the Forbidden City and ancient palaces. In 2002 Zhang Yimou, master of works for the Olympic Games and China's 60th anniversary celebrations, made his famous Hero, a flamboyant saga about the life of Emperor Qin, in this huge'Chinawood'and here the Berlin Festival's darling is probably shooting his very personal adaptation of the Coen brothers'first crime movie, Blood Simple. Hollywood movies are certainly welcome in China but an accord limits the number of foreign films distributed each year to 20 ! The West didn't really discover Chinese cinema until the 1990s but since then directors such as John Woo (Red Cliff), Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Three Times), Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern), Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine) and Jia Zhangke (Still Life) have become internationally renowned. America and even Europe are making eyes at some great actors who are now happy to film outside China. Let's introduce four leading Chinese actresses. GONG LI, AMBASSADRESS Born in 1965 into a family of teachers in Shenyang, Gong Li is Chinese cinema's great ambassadress, and a face of L’Oréal into the bargain. In 1985 she began studying at Beijing's academy of drama then three years later met the director Zhang Yimou, who lost no time in making her his muse and wife. Red Sorghum (1988) won the Golden Bear in Berlin but it was her very fine performance as Songlian in Raise the Red Lantern that gave her career an international boost. Before separating, the couple made The Story of Qiu Ju (1992), To Live (1994) and Shanghai Triad (1995). In 2005 the first Chinese woman to make the Times cover finally accepted her first American film, Memoirs of a Geisha (Rob Marshall) in which she plays… a Japanese woman ! Gong Li is a Unesco goodwillambassador and has chaired the jury at both the Berlin and Venice festivals. She has recently played in several US movies soon to be released in France, with Mickey Rourke, John Cusack and Jim Carrey. She's also in The Grand Master, which Wong Kar-Wai finished this month, based on the story of Ip Man, the Kung Fu pioneer who was Bruce Lee's master. ZHOU XUN, TOTAL STAR Known in Europe essentially for her role in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, a Franco-Chinese film directed by Dai Sijie in 2001, Zhou Xun was born in 1976 into a modest family in the province of Zhejiang. Today she is a huge star in her own country, which really took her to its heart in 2000 for Lou Ye's Suzhou River, which also won her the best actress prize at the Paris film festival. Europe loves her too for her performances in Beijing Bicycle and The Emperor and the Assassin, directed by Wang Xiaoshuai and Cheng Kaige respectively. A UN goodwillambassador and a Lancel face, the very lovely Zhou Xun, now a Hong Kong citizen, just never stops working. This year we'll see her in Confucius, the biopic directed by Hu Mei and filmedin the Hengdian studios (see above). SHU QI, INSATIABLE "Once you point the camera at her, it's Shu Qi who directs you. Her work was very moving, erotic and sensitive – everything I love in Chinese films," says Fatih Akin, whose contribution to the anthology movie New York I Love You we'll be able to see from 14 April. Not having been able to work on the first opus, Paris, je t’aime (2006), the Turkish-German director of Head-On and The Edge of Heaven took great pleasure in shooting his episode in Chinatown with the sublime Shu Qi in the title role. Born in Taiwan in 1976, this young lady with a rebellious temperament started her career in the 1990s as a model… of a particular kind ! After a few noted appearances in soft-porn films, Shu Qi met Andy Lau who gave her the leading role in five action films. Her acting career took off at top speed and her performance in Hou Hsiao Hsien's very Jules-et-Jim Millennium Mambo (2001) really proved just how talented she is. Four years later she worked with the same director on Three Times, which made quite an impact at the 2005 Cannes Festival ; last year she was on the Cannes jury. ZHANG ZIYI, WARRIOR Born in a modest Beijing family in 1979, Zhang Ziyi started as a dancer before studying at the highly respected Beijing drama school. In 2000 the entire world discovered her pretty face and athletic prowessin Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in which she plays an intrepid warrior. A year later she joined her compatriot Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 2. In Zhang Yimou's Oscar-nominated Hero she gives a brilliant performance as a valorous servant in old China. Her aura has taken on a truly international shine thanks to her excellent performances in Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 and Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha. We'll soon be seeing her alongside Hugh Jackman in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Chinese director Wayne Wang.