Is Chinese actress Liu Haocun the next Gong Li? Star of Zhang Yimou’s Cliff Walkers can learn from Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Dongyu
- Since being hand-picked by director Zhang Yimou to star in One Second and Cliff Walkers, Liu has been compared to superstars Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Dongyu
- But audiences have not been impressed with her performances so far, with critics saying the opportunities given to her far outweigh her acting skills
With Cliff Walkers taking more money than any other movie at the Chinese box office during the Labour Day “golden week” national holiday in early May – it has grossed 760 million yuan (US$118 million) – all eyes are on newcomer Liu Haocun, who plays one of the four Chinese agents whose secret operation goes horribly wrong in the 1930s-set film.
Dubbed the latest “Zhang Yimou girl” after the famous director hand-picked the 20-year-old actress to play the female lead in his Cultural Revolution drama One Second (2020), Liu was immediately compared to superstars Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Dongyu after her debut performance.
Catching the eye of Zhang Yimou is like securing a pathway to superstardom, as Liu’s female predecessors have shown.
Gong was hand-picked by Zhang when studying at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing to play the lead in Red Sorghum (1987), which was her debut performance. Her rustic beauty shone through in Zhang’s later films including Ju Dou (1990), Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and The Story of Qiu Ju (1992), and she soon became the most famous Chinese actress of her generation.
Zhang Ziyi made her cinematic debut in Zhang Yimou’s The Road Home (1999), wowing audiences with her ethereal beauty and gritty portrayal of a poor country girl pining for a teacher sent from the city. A year later, she gained international fame for her role in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon .