江苏省永丰初级中学九年级英语上册《Unit 5 Films》Biography for Gong Li文章背景材料 牛津版

Biography for Gong LiLong the muse of leading Chinese Fifth Generation filmmaker Zhang Yimou, Gong Li began her film career when she met the director while in drama school. She and Zhang received considerable international acclaim with their debut, Red Sorghum (1987), in which Gong played a meek bride who becomes a powerful woman when she takes over her husbands winery after his death.One of Chinas leading young stars of the 1980s and 90s, Gong has appeared in films by other directors (The Empress Dowager 1988, directed by Li Hanxiang; The Terra Cotta Warrior, in which she acted opposite Zhang) but it is in Zhangs films that she is best known internationally. Slender and demure-looking but possessing a naturalistic verve and strength onscreen, Gong Li embodies a new generation of Chinese women, brought up amid ancient tradition but reaching toward feminist values. In the title role of Ju Dou (1990), she played a married woman whose torrid affair with her husbands nephew brings about tragic consequences, while in Raise the Red Lantern (1991) her character also causes trouble as the newest addition to a mans bevy of wives. Gong Li ventured into comedy with another eponymous heroine in The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) as a woman farmer determined to avenge an injustice done to her husband. In 1993, Gong Li starred in a film by another Fifth Generation stalwart, Chen Kaige, Farewell to My Concubine which shared the Palme dOr at Cannes for best picture.Zhang once again directed Gong Li in the well-received historical epic To Live (1994), which followed a married couple over 30 years of modern Chinese history. Uncharacteristically, Gong Lis role as a devoted wife and mother was overshadowed by that of a strong male lead, actor Ge You, who played her husband. The pairs next collaboration Shanghai Triad (1995) offered Gong Li a tour-de-force role as a nightclub chanteuse and gangsters moll. She reunited with Chen Kaige for Temptress Moon (1996), in which she essays the role of an isolated, spoiled heiress. A year later, Gong made her English-language debut in Wayne Wangs Chinese Box,” staring opposite Jeremy Irons. She returned her native land for her next feature, “Piao liang ma ma” (“Breaking the Silence,” 1999), Chinas official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000 about a hard-working single mom who struggles to earn enough money to buy a new hearing aid for her son. Gong Li won Best Actress at the 2000 Montreal World Film Festival for her performance.Gong Li went on to star in what was reported as the most expensive Asian film to date, “The Emperor and the Assassin” (1999), a sweeping historical epic set in feudal China during the 3rd century B.C about the first emperor of a unified China (Li Xuejian), the man sworn to kill him (Zhang Fengyi) and the woman loved by both (Gong Li). In “Zhou Yus Train” (2020), she played a painter at a ceramic factory who has fallen in love with a reticent poet (Tony Leung) with whom she travels by train every weekend to engage in a passionate love affair. But on one trip to meet her lover, she meets a cynical traveling veterinarian (Sun Honglei) who also manages to win her affections. Gong Li next appeared in “Eros” (2020), an anthology with short features about eroticism and desire helmed by Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni. In Wong Kar Wais piece “The Hand,” she starred as a refined Hong Kong prostitute who seduces a young virginal tailor (Chang Chen) when he arrives at her home for a fitting.Gong Li reunited with Wong Kar Wai on his magnificently flawed epic, “2046” (2020), a loosely related continuation of the directors lyrical love story, “In the Mood for Love” (2001). She then had a supporting role in the high profile “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2020), the story of a Japanese girl torn from her penniless family and raised in a geisha house where she blossoms into the legendary geisha, Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang). Gong Li played an aging geisha jealous of Sayuris ability to captivate the most powerful men in the world. She was then set to star in two big budget features: “Miami Vice” (2020), a remake of the popular 1980s television show starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Ferrell, and “Behind the Mask” (set for release in 2020), a thriller that follows serial killer Hannibal Lecters childhood in Lithuania to his arrival in the United States. Both features promised to turn Gong Li into a household name in the states despite her long career in film. Born: on 12/31/1965 in Shenyang, ChinaJob Titles: Actor, TeacherSignificant OthersCompanion: Zhang Yimou. together for eight years; born in 1950; married; separated from Gong Li in 1995 EducationCentral Academy of Drama, Beijing, China, 1989 Milestones1985 Entered the Central Academy of Drama against the wishes of her parents 1987 Film debut, Red Sorghum 1990 Played opposite director Zhang Yimou in the adventure comedy, The Terra Cotta Warrior 1990 Starred in Zhang Yimous Ju Dou 1991 Reunited with Zhang Yimou to star in Raise the Red Lantern 1992 Had title role in The Story of Qiu Ju, directed by Zhang Yimou 1993 Initial collaboration with Chen Kaige, Farewell My Concubine 1994 Reunited with Zhang Yimou for To Live 1995 Had co-starring role in Shanghai Triad; last film collaboration with Zhang Yimou 1996 Second film with Chen Kaige Temptress Moon 1998 Appeared in first English-language role in Chinese Box, opposite Jeremy Irons 1999 Reunited with Chen Kaige to star in The Emperor and the Assassin 2000 Headlined Breaking the Silence, directed by Sun Zhou 2020 Starred with Maggie Cheung