Born in 1979, Zhang Ziyi found international recognition almost immediately after graduating from Beijing's Central Academy of Drama, thanks to a leading role in a Zhang Yimou film. In his 1999 film The Road Home, which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, she played the young Zhao Di.
Her performance as Jen Yu in Ang Lee's global hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, alongside Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh, made her a bona fide star the following year. People magazine named her one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 2002, and she has also appeared on the cover of Vogue.
She went on to take major roles in Zhang Yimou's Hero, alongside Jet Li, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, and in his House of Flying Daggers, which — like 2046 — she presented at Cannes the same year. She also made various guest appearances in Hong Kong films. At the time, she was also filming Wayne Wang's Great Chef, Likes to Cook and Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha (alongside Gong Li), produced by Steven Spielberg.
