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Zhang Ziyi teams with So Ji-sub

(By the way, this photo cracks me up. It is universally unflattering, isn’t it?)

Another Korea-China production! This time it’s a film, called Sophie’s Revenge and starring two A-list actors: So Ji-sub and Zhang Ziyi. Zhang’s casting has been confirmed, while So is still in the last stages of talks.

According to So’s management, he is currently in China shooting another drama (Cain and Abel, I assume) and will make his final decision upon his return.

A source with CJ Entertainment, the production company behind Sophie’s Revenge, explained that that the drama is currently in pre-production. As this casting news comes before the forms have been officially signed, the production company “is hurrying to finalize the contract.”

I know this question has been asked many times before about co-productions like this, but: Uh, how are they going to communicate?

Via Hankook Ilbo

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"According to So’s management, he is currently in China shooting another drama"

Huh. A medical drama with location shooting? (Huh. Sounds like there's gangsters in this one too. So Ji Sub is a doctor for a Triad? I love it!!) This may sound crazy, but I'd love it if they somehow connect his work with, say, the earthquake.

"Uh, how are they going to communicate?"

That's easy. Shadow puppets.

SJS's lines will be overdubbed probably. (But he can say so much with his eyes. Sigh!) This is supposed to be a rom-com movie though, so their chemistry will be lacking if they can't understand each other. And I'm sure this will further endear Zhang's millions and millions of . . . "fans(?)" . . . that she's opposite SJS.

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This is exciting!
I loved Ms ZZ in 2046 and she was fantastic in her breakout movie CTHD. Hated Memoirs of a Geisha. This girl delivers if the director is good. Looking forward to her Chen Kajie film.
My dream is to see So JiSub in a Wong Kar Wai film. A love story. Starring opposite the fabulous Faye Wong or the glorious Gong Li.
I am so glad So Ji Sub is going international.

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"My dream is to see So JiSub in a Wong Kar Wai film"

Oh, SJS would be an ideal muse for a WKW film, especially since he loves to have his melancholy lotharios stare out into space with the most soulful, lovelorn looks. WKW's frustrating to work with, though.

I'd love to see SJS work with somebody like Hsiao-Hsien, though I can't really see a Hsiao-Hsien story that would accomodate a Korean actor lead.

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OMG! Zhang Ziyi, is one of my favorite actress. Love her in Memoirs of Geisha!

Can't wait for THIS movie!
So Ji Sub going to speak in Chinese or Zhang Ziyi going to speak in Korean?
gosh dubbed? errrr please not dubbed!

When Lee Jun Ki did the movie Virgin Snow with Japanese actress Aoi Miyazaki, it was nice!

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Meh. Don't care much for Zhang Zi Yi...but it has always been my dream to see Ji Sub in a rom com! Not sure how these co-productions work as I've never watched one - I try to avoid them.

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"So Ji Sub going to speak in Chinese or Zhang Ziyi going to speak in Korean?"

Sophie's Revenge will be Chinese language and will have a Chinese director. Her other K-C crossover projects were Korean language (with overdubs.) This one's kinda unusual in that it's not a big-budget epic drama. Also, I think this is considered a Mainlander rom-com, which itself is not that popular.

@javabeans,,
"Cheese and Chinese food."

LOL yeah, that doesn't really work. We charge $100 for soup made out of bird spit, but rotten milk . . . that's just gross!! :D

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Is it just me, or is that picture of Zhang Ziyi up in the corner a little... come on, I can't be the only one who sees it! XD
I never liked Zhang Ziyi. I don't have anything againts the movies she's in(apart from Memoirs of a Geisha), there's just something about her that rubs me the wrong way.
I can't picture SJS in a comedy, it's like he just doesn't have a funny expression. He just might pull it off, using that deep, soul full, tormented stare in a moment of complete absurdness. Like when someone slips on a banana peel or something(have you EVER seen anyone actually slip on a banana peel?)...

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yupp, top picture looks totally like she's... naked. of all the pictures...

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*sigh* I really dislike miss Zhang just because of her revolting overrated-ness.....

To be honest, I hope SJS wouldn't take it, ZYZ is too one-note to do a romcom.

belleza, I know I'm sounding like a fangirl of yours agreeing to almost everything but actually SJS in a HHH film will be super perfect... as much as l like Chen Chang, I can picture SJS miming with Shu Qi in Three Times and boring holes into her eyes.

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My dream is to see So JiSub in a Wong Kar Wai film. A love story. Starring opposite the fabulous Faye Wong or the glorious Gong Li.
I am so glad So Ji Sub is going international

===

Me too like to see SJS acting opposite Gong Li or Maggie Cheung before they get too old, and wonder why Wong Kar Wai has not discovered him yet!

In any case, this movie would be good for SJS to expand outside of Korea,
but boy, I would HATE to have SJS's sexy deep voice overdubbed.

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No.... SJS picture (this one) look not nice. really unflatering.
any movie as long as happy ending with sjs in it, I'll be damn if I dont watch it.
well I guess if it will be play in local place if not I'll wait till people put it up in the internet. and if not.. I cancelled the part where I type" I'll be damn. :P

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I would love to see So Ji-sub in a rom-com and it'll be interesting to see him in a Chinese production but like others, I really, really dislike Zhang Ziyi.

So I'm not sure if I'll be able to sit through this...because I'll actually be rooting that he doesn't get with her :)

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Doesn't matter if you dislike Zhang Ziyi or dislike SJS in a romantic comedy that he won't die in the end. More important is whether Chinese audiences (lots of them) will go to the theater to see this movie or not. This is one challenge SJS should/could not pass up.

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why is she groping herself in the photo?

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Fine, since no one wants to say it. I will. Part of her aureola is showing in the top right picture. The hands don't cover it all.

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My goodness. Zhang Ziyi should not pose like tt for a nude photo. Its just downright wrong. And So Ji Sub, damn, he totally look like some grunge rock star.

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Hahaha! So Ji Sub's expression is like that of a little kid forced to smile in front of a camera.

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@ belleza and mookie- I agree... SJS in WKW or HH movie would be a dream come true...

but this.... please don't let it happen... wrong in so many ways. Even if is it's the only way SJS won't die in a role.... well.. let's just say he's better off dead.. surely there has to be better rom com opportunities for him than this?
ZZ is just... no comment....don't think she's liked by many Asians these days... I could be wrong tho.

I dislike dubs... it kills everything for me....

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Well it hardly the first time a Korean stared in a Chinese drama after all, Jang Nara and Chae Rim come to mind straight away, it just takes a little more work is all.
Ow and the photo would say photo shop faked, she hardly going to poise nude when she had body double in past films to handle that sort of thing.

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well...a few Koreans have been acting in Chinese dramas and they get dubbed. Irritating but...oh well.

however, i don't see a chemistry between those two.

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Can I have the complete picture of Zhang Ziyi, the one where she looks partially naked? ^^""

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i doubt the photo of ZHY at the top is real.. the head looks a bit odd in proportion compared to her neck and body.. it looks like the head is photoshopped in..

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agree with jes (23). top photo looks photoshopped...

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"ZZ is just… no comment….don’t think she’s liked by many Asians these days… I could be wrong tho."

Heh heh. Ahhh, Zhang Ziyi.

See good people of Korea, stars like Rain, Lee Hyori, and Yoon Eun Hye may have Antis. Whereas Ziyi has literally HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of Mainlanders who hate-hate-hate her for her bourgeoisie "peeg" "tramp-ho-slut" ways, going goes back to the derisive "little Gong Li" label from pre-CTHD. Pouty, pouty she -- the Original Mando Rude Girl -- is to Chinese cinema/drama what 50 Cents is to Gangsta Surburbia. And she, like Arafat, gilds her words for the Western press while laying on the wicked in her native tongue.

So, yeah, I ADORE Zhang Ziyi. "It'z Ziyi, b****es!!" :D

"I can’t picture SJS in a comedy, it’s like he just doesn’t have a funny expression. He just might pull it off, using that deep, soul full, tormented stare in a moment of complete absurdness."

His comic timing, ability to make the funniest, weirdest faces, and willingness to make being angry look really silly is somewhat like Lee Bum Soo . . except weirder. He's vastly, vastly underrated in that form.

What I love about SJS's acting is that he finds humor in the blackest things, and sadness in the funny. He's a comedian where all his jokes are for himself. His ironic distance (which translates onscreen to a casual nobility) wasn't there yet until he did Glass Shoes. And then by MiSa, he achieved OMGNSB (aka "OMG Not Since Brando") status finding the poetry in the absurd, release in and from the gutter. It's not a conventional palate Ji Sub simmers through his performances. When it's anger, it's accidental and rueful. When it's desire, it's essentially curious. That palate is well-suited for Wong Kar Wai films, and rom-com.

"I can picture SJS miming with Shu Qi in Three Times and boring holes into her eyes."

Imagine SJS in a wifebeater stalking that pool hall, and Shu Qi beaming girlishly as she lets his eyes linger over her. *dies*

Imagine SJS in that 1911 repressed geometry, longing to tell Shu Qi what he can't to that glorious, glorious piano score. *cries*

Imagine SJS and junkie, dying Shu Qi going nowhere and nowhere and nowhere. Oh the motorcycle emptiness!! *sighs eternally*

Imagine SJS and Shu Qi running around in snow in a nonmoving frame in Hokkaido with those film billboards. (From Millenium Mambo whose opening scene summed up what the late 90s was all about for me.)

Belleza dare not dream SJS in a HHH movie anymore. It is an perfect, impossible dream. Sigh.

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"Belleza dare not dream SJS in a HHH movie anymore. It is an perfect, impossible dream. Sigh."

Awww.... for every impossible dream, there is always photoshop! The ones you mentioned are stirring some strange ideas in my head... ^^

I can totally picture SJS as the king of black humor and dark comedies... He has an affinity towards quirky and unconventional things....I think its a side of him (as an actor) that is severely underrepresented so far.
But rom com? not so much...(remember We are dating now? ^^")
Unless the female lead shares that sense of humor...in that case it would be worth watching...

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I don't even like Zhang jiyi (see..I don't even know how to write her name properly LOL)

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"But rom com? not so much…(remember We are dating now? ^^”)"

You know, I actually liked We Are Dating Now since I did grow up in the 90s and it was nice hearing, you know, LA BOUCHE in a K-drama. LOVED KSW in the series; it's weird how we only get to see Funny KSW in movies, because he's a riot.

I'd like to see a reunion between Kim Sun Ah and So Ji Sup. It seems counterintuitive now, but I always thought they would really click if given a proper situation. Also, I have this personal belief that male leads that click with Chae Rim would also click with KSA and vice versa, even though their styles are very different

"I can totally picture SJS as the king of black humor and dark comedies…"

What's interesting about him and comedy is that he turns into a true character actor in comic and weirdo roles. His facial expressions get tuned a certain way, and he may tweak his posture or mannerisms, but above all, he starts to think in that character's mode. I thought his Jang Hyuk-style hothead in U-turn was hilarious; there's this bit where he's on the phone and he starts to make these weird "robot" gestures, completely ignoring Lee Yeon Hee in that scene. What sells that scene is that you truly believe SJS is completely oblivious to her, even though that would be completely inappropriate. You really believe this guy is a WEIRDO. :D His character is the punchline rather than merely any one thing his character does.

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About So Ji Sub as Chang Chen in Three times....i disagree. Chang was perfect especially the first two parts. SJS is too intense for those parts. I can see him as the photographer in the last part. The 60's part needed innocence and SJS smolders too much. And the freedom fighter part could have been played only by a Chinese. I can see SJS playing the immature boyfriend in MM. Jack Kao was terrific as the gangster and I don't see SJS ever topping him. I love Jack!
About the language question why not do what WKW does ...get all the actors to speak in their native languages like 2046.
HHH is making a wuxia film with Shu Qi ....I can see So Ji Sub as her long lost warrior love.
Belleza.....have you seen Ashes of time? It's playing in NY.

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umm yeah - that top photo of zhang ziyi looks like an ad for porno or something along those lines...

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"About So Ji Sub as Chang Chen in Three times….i disagree. Chang was perfect especially the first two parts."

Yeah, I thought Chang Chen was terrific in both parts, and since HHH favors Shu Qi as his muse, HHH's focus was on her anyway. And realistically, it would be odd in the context of story to have a Korean actor play that part.

I would disagree with the innocence/intense part, and that's always been my argument about SJS. He's now associated with the brooding gangster image, but he for a few years, he was actually cast as rather naive, quirky looking roles.

"About the language question why not do what WKW does …get all the actors to speak in their native languages like 2046."

Yeah, but MM and his colloborator usully puts together very specific stories and usually something specific about Taiwan. His Balon Rouge homage was a huge detour for him, sure; but there again there was that specificity.

I'm not sure how the wuxia will turn out, because I can't actually visualize him making a wuxia. That would require a moving frame (you know, to convey actual motion) and HHH hates that! :D And of course, that's also what makes it so fascinating, to see whether and how he'd retool wuxia film grammar according to his austere requirements. And his attention to frame -- not merely the standard macro auteur stuff like color motifs and casual symbolism, but geometry, space, contrast, focal point, foreground/background, etc. -- is virtually unrivaled in Asian cinema in both its complexity. Movement in his frame can be startling.

I actually don't understand his Shu Qi fixation, BUT I'd like to see a Song Seung Heon and Shu Qi do something together again.

"..have you seen Ashes of time?"

Yup. From the really, really crap version. Ashes of Time didn't work for me (a while ago though), so I'll probably wait until Redux comes out on DVD.

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The idea of HHH making a wuxia film thrills me to bits. I would love to see his interpretation......I have a feeling it will be a blend of Ashes of time and A touch of Zen.

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"The idea of HHH making a wuxia film thrills me to bits."

He excites me probably like no other director. I love certain WKW films, but I love HHH's aesthetic completely. There will always be certain sequences that makes me gasp and wonder "wow, I don't think even WKW (who otherwise is in my favorite 5 of stylists) has the attention to detail to achieve this kind of succinct, transcendent poetics in the concrete of things." And when I think of him doing a wuxia, I keep thinking it would be impossible while maintaining his austere style. He would have to develop an entirely new film grammar for wuxia. And he just might.

Not so much that I'd want him to make his Ashes of Time, per se. Ashes is like the Citizen Kane/Finnegan's Wake of wuxia! :D

"…I have a feeling it will be a blend of Ashes of time and A touch of Zen."

Indeed. I can't wait for his take on the bamboo scene. He's the one director that can approach as a cubist might, deconstructing the cartesian foundation that other directors perfume and resynthesize it into a static expression of human condition. I'm just thinking right now, how subtle ingenious his layout of the pool hall was. It was a virtual Platonic cave in its own strange, sweet way.

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no i think with im soo jung best couple because he look to her like wife

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she is too old for him

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