Actress Zhao Wei plays challenging role in child-abduction drama

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-9-2 19:58:01

Zhao Wei Photo: CFP



During her almost 20-year career, famed Chinese actress Zhao Wei has starred in 26 films and 13 TV dramas, working with some of the most renowned filmmakers.

Notable works include Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer, Ann Hui's Jade Goddess of Mercy, Red Cliff I and Red Cliff II by John Woo, Gordon Chan's Painted Skin, The Resurrection by Wu Ershan and Daniel Lee's 14 Blades.

This time Zhao has ditched makeup and her long hair for Dearest a film by Hong Kong director Peter Ho-sun Chan that was recently shown at the ongoing Venice Film Festival. In the film she plays Li Hongqin, a simple-minded rural woman who becomes the foster mother to a kidnapped baby boy that had been brought home by her late husband.

By the time the child's biological parents find their son in the remote village after combing through half of China, they realize that their son sees them as complete strangers. Having raised the boy for years, Li decides to fight for the custody of the child.

"When I was asked by Chan to play this character, I though it would be very difficult for me," Zhao told  the Xinhua News Agency.

"But then I told myself that I should trust such an experienced director, if he believed I was able to make it," she added.

Zhao said she had to work hard to build her character.

"At the beginning I had no image in my mind of this mother from the countryside, and I had to attentively look for her. I reasoned a lot, until I gradually managed to get closer and closer to Li," she said.

In the meantime, the actress had to learn to speak a rural dialect.

Dearest is based on a true story that Chan learned about from a news documentary around two years ago. He decided to turn it into a film that shows both sides of the story.

Posted in: Film

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