163 Entertainment
4 Jul 2008
On 3 Jul, there was a lavish opening premiere for [Red Cliff] in Chengdu, John Woo’s first Chinese epic war movie after his foray into Hollywood. Zhao Wei, who starred as Sun Quan’s sister Sun Shangxiang, attended the premiere. When the media commented that her lively character of Sun Shangxiang is similar to [My Dear Princess]’s Little Swallow, Zhao Wei frowned and pointed out that the characters are different. However, she admitted that Sun Shangxiang was the bright spot in the war setting.
Compared to her attire at the promotional event in Beijing, Zhao Wei was much more ladylike and sexy at Chengdu. However, her character of Sun Shangxiang in [Red Cliff] is more akin to Hua Mulan, the legendary lady who disguised as a man to go to war. “Before filming, the director asked me to learn archery and horse riding.” That was why when she saw a bow crafted by an artist in Chengdu, she took it excitedly and even jokingly aimed the bow at co-actor Tong Dawei.
Her character Sun Shangxiang is also a mischievous and lively person. Zhao Wei shook her head when she heard the media comparing Sun Shangxiang to her previous character of Little Swallow in [My Dear Princess]. “If you watched both the first and second parts of the movie, you’d realize that the theme is very serious, and all the characters matured quickly.” However, she admitted that Sun Shangxiang provided much humour in the movie.
Zhao Wei, who is currently studying directing in the Movie Academy, felt that it was very tough being a director after participating in [Red Cliff]. “It’s (Being the director) really a tough job. I think no director in Chinese history had the leadership ability to film a movie like [Red Cliff]. If you don’t have a certain sort of charisma, you won’t be able to handle such a massive cast. From director John Woo, I really learned the art of fighting to the last.”
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Zhao Wei reflects on “Also a lady’s responsibility”; need not be too critical of details
Sichuan Online
July 4, 2008
The most talked about topic in the movie premiere should be the dialogue between Sun Shangxiang and Zhuge Liang in the movie, when Sun announced “it is also a lady’s responsibility to ensure the survival of a country.”
The original phrase should be “Every man has a responsibility to ensure the survival of a country.” However, the phrase was only mentioned during the Qing Dynasty, which is more than one thousand years later than the Three Kingdoms era. Hence, several critics panned the use of the phrase in [Red Cliff].
At the premiere press conference, Zhao Wei commented that language and text are ever-changing, and it would not be strange if the phrase had indeed originated from the Three Kingdoms era. In addition, Zhao Wei hoped that the audiences would not focus on such minute details, as a movie is produced for the audiences’ entertainment, and the phrase was included in the movie as part of Sun Shangxiang’s humour.
Director John Woo also added that this phrase was specially added during the brainstorming session with the intention to brighten up Sun Shangxiang’s dialogues.
Zhao Wei remarked that she had only attended the promotional events in Beijing and Chengdu because she had signed on another movie assignment, and hence could only choose the venues she wanted to attend. She had decided on Chengdu together with Tong Dawei, because she hoped that by attending the movie premiere in earthquake-stricken area of Sichuan would help stimulate interest and unity amongst the Chinese.
Translated by 小妹子
