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A dream team of movie stars from China and Japan gathered in Tokyo on
Monday to promote Memoirs of a Geisha the first big-budget Hollywood
romance to feature an almost entirely Asian cast.
Based on a best-selling novel, backed by Steven Spielberg and directed
by Rob Marshall of the multiple Oscar-winning Chicago, Memoirs has
generated enormous media interest.
The cast adds up to Asia's A-list, with China's Ziyi Zhang starring as
Sayuri, a poor fisherman's daughter who transforms herself into a legend
of Kyoto's mysterious entertainment world in the 1930s. The two other
leading roles are played by Gong Li, also of China, and ethnic Chinese
Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, with Japanese performers relegated to
secondary roles.
Memoirs, reported to have cost its makers $85 million, can ill afford
to alienate moviegoers in Japan, the second biggest market for Hollywood
films.
Dressed in an off-white cocktail dress with her hair piled high, Zhang
told a packed news conference she saw the film as a step forward for Asian
actors. I am really grateful to Rob Marshall for giving us this incredible
chance to show the whole world Asian actors' ability, she said on Monday.
We can do so much more than people think.
(CRI) | 
Updated: 2005-11-30 10:22
