Zhang Ziyi evolves into respected actress

Zhang Ziyi burst onto the scene in 2000 with her spirited portrayal of a kung fu-kicking woman who has a passionate affair with a bandit and steals a precious sword in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Through a wide range of roles and work with top Chinese and foreign directors, she’s evolved in the six years since from ingenue to respected actress, critics and colleagues seem to agree.

She’s moved on to more nuanced roles, and in her latest film, the epic tragedy “The Banquet,” she plays a jaded young queen torn between political survival and true love.

“When I first started, I just used my instinct, my most basic, natural reflexes,” Zhang said. “Now it’s different. I’m not playing myself. I’m sculpturing a live character.”

She speaks earnestly about her craft, meticulously describing a scene involving her character.

“It’s the first time I cried onscreen without making noise. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t make any noise. I only have tears ... your heart really hurts,” said the slender Zhang, wrapped in a knee-length brown leather trench coat.

Her action films like “Hero,” “House of Flying Daggers” and Jackie Chan’s “Rush Hour 2” are well-known in the West, but Zhang also appeared in the Korean-language “Musa” (2001), playing a Chinese princess rescued by Korean fighters.

She has worked with the notoriously unorthodox Hong Kong art-house director Wong Kar-wai on “2046” (2004), as a cocky dancer who gradually falls for a neighbor.

In her first major English-speaking role, Zhang starred in “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005).

She’s building a track record, says film scholar Michael Berry, that is unprecedented.

“She has done something that virtually no other Chinese actor has done, that is, successfully traveling across different cinematic regions, from China to Japan and from Korea to America,” said Berry, who teaches at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

“Her versatility in terms of both her dramatic range as an actor and geographic range, which has taken her across the globe, is unmatched,” he said.

“The Banquet” director Feng Xiaogang and co-star Zhou Xun raved about her performance in the movie.

“The success or failure of this film depends on Zhang Ziyi. It’s not that other actors don’t matter. The source of all conflict is Zhang Ziyi’s character. She needs to be able to shoulder that. She plays such a complex women,” Feng said. “She’s young,” he added, “but she has the ability of a star actor.”

The foundation of Zhang’s evolution was her studies at the prestigious Central Academy of Drama in Beijing.

Zhang’s acting teacher held her back from movie roles while she was in school so she could focus on her basic training, according to Zhang’s Chinese-language biography, “Zhang Ziyi’s Diary: Model of a Successful Performing Arts Education.”

Zhang also, she said, learned an important lesson from Hong Kong director Wong, who has a reputation of working without a script — that “performances without any sign of preparation are the most spectacular.”

Zhang’s next movie hasn’t been announced. She said she’s signed on for an English-language film but won’t give details yet. She has also expressed interest in a movie about the Chinese folk hero Hua Mulan, which inspired the animated Disney movie, but the film is still in its planning stages.

More U.S. projects are available to Zhang now that she’s improved her English by taking some classes and listening to English pop songs. But, Zhang emphasized, she doesn’t worship Hollywood blindly.

“It’s not that I agree to shoot any Hollywood movie. Hollywood produces a lot of garbage every year,” she said.