Ziyi Zhang
By Keen Lee
Beautiful Ziyi Zhang attended the special screening of her film “Love for Life” and met with her fans at the 3rd New York Chinese Film Festival to answer questions about her experience when making the movie and her journey as an actress.
“Love for Life” is a tragic love story about two AIDS-afflicted lovers. Aaron Kwok plays the character of Zhao Deyi, a primary school teacher who moves to the countryside to teach and contracts AIDS when he sold his blood. Deyi and Zhang Ziyi’s character, Shang Qinqin, who also contracted AIDS, fall in love with each other. Feeling unwanted and abandoned, both Deyi and Qinqin vowed to be together during their last days. They struggle to overcome hardships for the remainder of their lives together.
“Love for Life” shows how difficult and cruel life can be sometimes but when one has the heart and will to love to another, the hardships can be overcome and a positive perspective can be seen in a different light. This film has definitely reminded the audience to not only appreciate life everyday but to also cherish loved ones because one may never know what will happen tomorrow. Deyi’s and Qinqin’s relationship proves that there is nothing stronger and lasting than love.
Ziyi portrayed her character with a lot of emotions and strength. During the Q&A, when Ziyi was asked how she prepared herself to play Qinqin’s role, she said she was not sure if she was able to distinguish between herself from Qinqin because Ziyi understands and can relate to Qinqin’s life. Nonetheless, Ziyi played Qinqin in “Love for Life” extremely well and justified her character portrayal. The audience can definitely see the character development and impact Qinqin endured throughout the film from her emotions and actions. She was abused and disrespected for following her heart but her character had the strength to continue living and loving for herself and Deyi.
Ziyi Zhang
Once the movie ended, the press and the audience were excited and anticipated for Ziyi’s arrival. Within moments, Ziyi was invited into the theater for a brief Q&A session. Angela Gao, the fabulous designer of AnGG New York whom recently presented her collection at the AsianInNY’s Moon Festival Fashion Show, is a childhood friend of Ziyi and surprised Ziyi at the screening. The two had grown up with each other and had practiced martial arts together during their early teenage years. Ziyi greeted Angela with a warm hug and asked about Angela’s father. Angela’s father is the choreographer for the martial arts in the popular 2000 film, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” where Ziyi played the role of Jen Yu.
Though Zhang Ziyi was on a time restraint, Ziyi responded to the press and audience with patience and smiles throughout the Q&A. She was very sweet and genuine in her responses. Everyone had hoped Ziyi to stay longer but she had to catch her next flight! Before she left, she also autographed AsianInNY’s t-shirt and expressed how much she supported our mission in providing reliable online content and producing live offline events to support the Asian culture and communities.
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Ziyi Zhang
AsianInNY with Yang Zhang, QingZhou Fang, Bo Gao
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