Asia's star rising over Hollywood

The Annual Academy Awards bonanza is not merely about the glam and glitz at the Shrine Auditorium, nor the limos and parties on Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive. It is also a high-powered business meeting for Hollywood studio bosses to scope out the next stars, and for directors and producers to decide what will be the next big thing for movies in the coming year. This was especially true for the stars and professionals involved in the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍) at the Oscars ceremony last Sunday.

The buzz surrounding the Crouching Tiger group in the run-up to and during the Oscars approached fever pitch for its four actors and actresses, Chow Yun-fat (周潤發), Zhang Ziyi (章子怡), Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) and Chang Chen (張震). Their managers' cellphones rang incessantly and their schedules were packed with meetings with studio heads, producers and Hollywood media, all eager to discuss potential future projects. With Crouching Tiger having brought in well over US$100 million at the North American box office alone and the lavish attention paid to them at their Oscar appearances, these four actors have quickly become household names to millions around the globe. And perhaps more significantly for their future career prospects, Crouching Tiger has generated intense interest in stories about Asian cultures.

The shift in attention toward Asian films has led Michael Barker, president of Sony Pictures Classics to predict that Asia will be the next big thing in the global film market.

Chow, for example, has seen his profile raised considerably since the making of Crouching Tiger. Just after arriving in Los Angeles for the Oscars, he was chosen by People Magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" and was whisked away for a photo shoot. Among his on-going projects is a Steven Spielberg adaptation of the Arthur S. Golden novel Memoirs of a Geisha and two starring roles in films by his old friend John Woo (吳宇森). One, titled Bulletproof Monk, is the story of Chinese immigrants' lives in America in the early 20th century. The second, King's Ransom, will be an adventure thriller. According to Chinese-language media, Chow is now fetching US$2 million for each role.

Zhang is another rising star in Hollywood. Her free-spirited character Jen in Crouching Tiger won her Best Supporting Actress honors at the Independent Spirit Awards and intensive coverage with major international media such as Time Magazine. Her glittering Escada dress at the Oscars night also made her one of the evening's most glamorous and memorable figures. The 21-year-old starlet has recently finished a Korean film titled Moosah (武士), playing a princess in the period drama. Currently, she is shooting Rush Hour 2, a New Line Cinema production, in Las Vegas with Jacky Chan (成龍) and John Lone (尊龍). She has also signed up with Hong Kong directors Tsui Hark (徐克) and Wong Kar-wai (王家衛) for two new films. She will appear again as a warrior princess in Tsui's remake of Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain (蜀山劍俠) and will act alongside Crouching Tiger partner Chang Chen for Wong's film titled 2046.

Few would have dared imagine before Crouching Tiger that audiences around the world would relish sitting through two hours of a Chinese-language movie about Chinese culture. But Barker sees a cultural sea change in the way film's are consumed and perceived. "You will find teenage girls making Zhang Ziyi their role models -- to be a free woman. And you will find middle-aged men seeing themselves in Chow Yun-fat's character."