Chang Chen Takes a Deep Breath in Cannes for Korean Director Kim Ki Duk
May 22nd, 2007 by dd
South Korean director Kim Ki-duk was so taken by Taiwanese actor Chang Chen, star of the Academy Award winning “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” that he created a role that broke down language barriers.
Chang, who speaks no Korean, stars in Kim’s latest film “Breath,” a poetic story of jealousy and redemption in competition at the Cannes film festival, as Jang Jin, a condemned prisoner whose repeated suicide attempts have left him unable to speak.
“I would like to have been able to speak Korean but I can’t,” Chang told reporters through an interpreter. “It’s a role that gave me quite a few challenges at a psychological level. I had to use my body to express emotions.”
His growing love for Yeon, a married woman played by South Korean actor Zia, is conveyed solely through looks and gestures that become steadily more intense as their strange affair develops through her repeated visits to his prison.
“I wanted to cast the image of Chang Chen because I’d seen a lot of pictures and films that he’d made and the only way to cast the image and to get something different, was to do without language,” Kim Ki-duk, a regular at international festivals, told reporters after the film’s press screening.
Posted in Taiwan, Film, Celebrity, Chang Chen, Korean, Zia | 
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