Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi will be president of the main competition jury at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, the fest announced Wednesday in Cannes.
TIFF director Takeo Hisamatsu called Ziyi “one of the leading actresses in the world” and said her performance in legendary Japanese director Seijun Suzuki’s final film Princess Raccoon (2005) had “earned her many Japanese fans.”
Zhang recalled her first trip to Tokyo with her first feature, Zhang Yimou’s The Road Home (1999), which went on to win a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. “I was immensely touched by the warmth of the reception and witnessed first-hand the love and passion that Japan has for the art of moviemaking,” she said.
With a career that has spanned Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha, Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour 2 and Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster, for which Zhang won multiple awards, the actress is China’s best-known international star. She will appear in the upcoming Godzilla: King of the Monsters and is due to reprise her role in 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong.
Zhang has previously served on juries at Cannes and other international fests.
The 32nd edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival is set to run Oct. 28-Nov. 5 at Roppongi Hills and other central Tokyo venues.
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