Chinese actress Gong Li appears to be channeling leading lady Helen Hunt in her latest movie, What Women Want, a Chinese remake of the 2000 Hollywood romantic comedy, in which a chauvinistic executive accidentally gains the ability to hear what women are really thinking.
Best known for work in acclaimed period dramas like Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern and Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine, this is apparently her first time playing a contemporary, modern woman in a Chinese film. Here's a recent interview she did with the Hollywood Reporter: Chinese actress Gong Li remakes "What Women Want."
HOW DOES YOUR ROLE IN THE FILM REFLECT THE RISING STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE IN CHINA TODAY AND WHAT CHALLENGES REMAIN FOR WOMEN?What Women Want, directed by Chen Daming, opens in theaters in China in February. The film also stars Andy Lau (in the Mel Gibson role) and Russell Wong. You can watch the teaser trailer, with no English subtitles, here.
Gong: So many women now are entering the workforce and also taking up very important positions -- CEOs, for example.
The problem for many such women now is how to balance all the different kind of responsibilities that they take on and that they want to take up. They have to balance family and work and maybe kids. Chinese woman really have a strong desire to do that. They want to grab a hold of all these things. They are willing and able. But there is the challenge of how to keep the balance.
I mentioned those strong female CEOs. I actually went to interview some of them to ask them about this. A few of them said it is actually better being single. Some of the ones I spoke with said that once they have gotten that far, they don't want to give up the fruits of their hard work. So, they must give up something.
Another way to look at this is that in order to maintain such a high level, a lot of times they must get so strong that it is nearly an androgynous character. At the office and in meetings, they have to speak in a very straightforward and even a masculine way to speak on even terms. And not a lot of men can handle such a strong woman, right? They may run into some problems at homes.
For those high-ranking women in society unfortunately the thing that goes is family life.