Sun LI
Since her 2001 debut on China’s version of “Star Search,” Sun Li has reigned as their “Queen of Television,” becoming the youngest winner of China’s three major TV awards. Western filmgoers will remember Sun from 2006’s FEARLESS as Jet Li’s blind muse.
In SHADOW, Sun portrays a noblewoman trapped in a deadly game of deception, as she must pass a body double off as her husband, a great and powerful commander at odds with their king.
In an exclusive chat with LMD, Sun spoke about her role in the film, working beside her husband, actor/director Deng Chao, and joining the pantheon of Director Zhang Yimou’s indomitable, unforgettable female characters.
Dig it!
SHADOW
Sun Li
The Lady Miz Diva: First, please tell us how the role of Madam, the Commander’s wife, came to you?
Sun Li: My husband, Deng Chao, was set to perform in this movie, and I was so excited about that. Then a little bit of time passed, and Deng Chao told me that Director Zhang wanted to invite me to perform in the film, and I was absolutely thrilled, and that’s how I got cast.
LMD: I’m happy to hear that Director Zhang had both of you in mind when he cast the roles. Was that part of the allure of appearing in the film?
SL: It was really interesting to me. I had previously worked with Deng Chao on a number of projects before, but this one was such an interesting challenge to both of us. First of all, to work with such a great director, but also, even though we are husband and wife in real life, the husband and wife that we play in the movie were obviously very, very different from anything that we had performed together before -- anything that we had seen before -- and we really liked the opportunity to have this challenge for acting.
LMD: Please tell us how you initially read the character when you received the script? What were the aspects of Madam on the page that stuck out in your mind?
SL: What really attracted me was the fact that the role that I was playing was a woman in a palace; I’ve done palace dramas, palace movies, palace television shows, most of the time it was sort of a prefabricated stereotype. You know, the beautiful princess, or beautiful queen, who doesn’t really have her own volition. That doesn’t have to talk to the men in a way that gives them ideas, or helps themselves solve problems.
In this role, because I was really caught between not just the great Commander, who is my husband, but a situation where very complicated decisions have to be made, and choices have to be made, it gave me a lot more opportunity to have volition, and to have ideas, and power, and reactions. And so, it was just a very non-stereotypical role that was offered to me, and I really liked the idea of playing it.
Her feelings were changing -- the character’s feelings were changing and reacting throughout the entire movie. In every section of the movie, she has to make important choices; she has to measure her feelings. She is very complex emotionally. Again, not like predictable emotions; she has to make decisions that have to do with how power should be exercised, how things would be resolved, what was right and what was wrong -- but not just for what was right to do as a woman, what was right to do as a person. And so, it was a very emotionally complex role that I really put myself into and developed.
LMD: True to what we’ve come to expect from Director Zhang, he centers the most important moments around the women in his films. There is so much importance in Madam’s asking to step in during her husband’s battle training.
Not only is she teaching Jing, the body double, that the only way he can defend is to embrace his feminine side, or his yin; she is also showing what a force she is against her powerful husband, and how they have related together as a married couple. The scene changes the entire film.
Please talk about both the mental and physical challenges of that scene.
SL: I really loved the scene, because, as you said, it is so critical in the movie. It was such a breakthrough to not just talk about using the soft to overcome the hard -- using yin to overcome the yang -- but they were actually doing it physically, and it was in a way that showed the yin and the yang side of each of the characters. It was very, very well thought out.
Actually, I started from a very young age as a dancer. And you asked about my preparation for the scene; I love doing action films because it takes me back to my early roots as a performer, as a dancer. I didn’t feel it was much of a challenge, physically.
I love action scenes, and I love beautiful dance scenes; so this was something that was not only up my alley in terms of what I was comfortable doing, but it also enabled the character development to move together with the action, and what was happening on scene in a really beautiful way.
LMD: Subsequent to that, the sequence of Madam and Commander Yu playing music together is like an entire movie’s worth of romantic drama in one short, wordless scene. Please take us through the meaning of that scene, and what they are actually saying to each other?
SL: Every scene that was constructed -- particularly scenes that I was in with the commander, who was my husband -- every different scene was expressing an important emotional message, that there were different kinds of connections between Madam and the commander throughout the movie.
It’s that scene in particular -- which director Zhang asked us to do over, and over, and over, to get it right -- was about opposition. It was almost an angry opposition. It’s basically Madam saying to the commander, ‘I am opposed to what you are doing. This is not good,’ and letting out all of her feelings through this angry opposition. This was also encapsulated inside the battle scene.
This was the ultimate battle scene, this was the ultimate opposition; this was opposition, and anger, and passion, all rolled up into one complete scene that was a story within a story, but also wrapped within a bigger story. It was really supposed to be the most dramatic shocking, high point of the energy and repressed anger that was there in the movie all along.
In SHADOW, Sun portrays a noblewoman trapped in a deadly game of deception, as she must pass a body double off as her husband, a great and powerful commander at odds with their king.
In an exclusive chat with LMD, Sun spoke about her role in the film, working beside her husband, actor/director Deng Chao, and joining the pantheon of Director Zhang Yimou’s indomitable, unforgettable female characters.
Dig it!
SHADOW
Sun Li
The Lady Miz Diva: First, please tell us how the role of Madam, the Commander’s wife, came to you?
Sun Li: My husband, Deng Chao, was set to perform in this movie, and I was so excited about that. Then a little bit of time passed, and Deng Chao told me that Director Zhang wanted to invite me to perform in the film, and I was absolutely thrilled, and that’s how I got cast.
LMD: I’m happy to hear that Director Zhang had both of you in mind when he cast the roles. Was that part of the allure of appearing in the film?
SL: It was really interesting to me. I had previously worked with Deng Chao on a number of projects before, but this one was such an interesting challenge to both of us. First of all, to work with such a great director, but also, even though we are husband and wife in real life, the husband and wife that we play in the movie were obviously very, very different from anything that we had performed together before -- anything that we had seen before -- and we really liked the opportunity to have this challenge for acting.
LMD: Please tell us how you initially read the character when you received the script? What were the aspects of Madam on the page that stuck out in your mind?
SL: What really attracted me was the fact that the role that I was playing was a woman in a palace; I’ve done palace dramas, palace movies, palace television shows, most of the time it was sort of a prefabricated stereotype. You know, the beautiful princess, or beautiful queen, who doesn’t really have her own volition. That doesn’t have to talk to the men in a way that gives them ideas, or helps themselves solve problems.
In this role, because I was really caught between not just the great Commander, who is my husband, but a situation where very complicated decisions have to be made, and choices have to be made, it gave me a lot more opportunity to have volition, and to have ideas, and power, and reactions. And so, it was just a very non-stereotypical role that was offered to me, and I really liked the idea of playing it.
Her feelings were changing -- the character’s feelings were changing and reacting throughout the entire movie. In every section of the movie, she has to make important choices; she has to measure her feelings. She is very complex emotionally. Again, not like predictable emotions; she has to make decisions that have to do with how power should be exercised, how things would be resolved, what was right and what was wrong -- but not just for what was right to do as a woman, what was right to do as a person. And so, it was a very emotionally complex role that I really put myself into and developed.
LMD: True to what we’ve come to expect from Director Zhang, he centers the most important moments around the women in his films. There is so much importance in Madam’s asking to step in during her husband’s battle training.
Not only is she teaching Jing, the body double, that the only way he can defend is to embrace his feminine side, or his yin; she is also showing what a force she is against her powerful husband, and how they have related together as a married couple. The scene changes the entire film.
Please talk about both the mental and physical challenges of that scene.
SL: I really loved the scene, because, as you said, it is so critical in the movie. It was such a breakthrough to not just talk about using the soft to overcome the hard -- using yin to overcome the yang -- but they were actually doing it physically, and it was in a way that showed the yin and the yang side of each of the characters. It was very, very well thought out.
Actually, I started from a very young age as a dancer. And you asked about my preparation for the scene; I love doing action films because it takes me back to my early roots as a performer, as a dancer. I didn’t feel it was much of a challenge, physically.
I love action scenes, and I love beautiful dance scenes; so this was something that was not only up my alley in terms of what I was comfortable doing, but it also enabled the character development to move together with the action, and what was happening on scene in a really beautiful way.
LMD: Subsequent to that, the sequence of Madam and Commander Yu playing music together is like an entire movie’s worth of romantic drama in one short, wordless scene. Please take us through the meaning of that scene, and what they are actually saying to each other?
SL: Every scene that was constructed -- particularly scenes that I was in with the commander, who was my husband -- every different scene was expressing an important emotional message, that there were different kinds of connections between Madam and the commander throughout the movie.
It’s that scene in particular -- which director Zhang asked us to do over, and over, and over, to get it right -- was about opposition. It was almost an angry opposition. It’s basically Madam saying to the commander, ‘I am opposed to what you are doing. This is not good,’ and letting out all of her feelings through this angry opposition. This was also encapsulated inside the battle scene.
This was the ultimate battle scene, this was the ultimate opposition; this was opposition, and anger, and passion, all rolled up into one complete scene that was a story within a story, but also wrapped within a bigger story. It was really supposed to be the most dramatic shocking, high point of the energy and repressed anger that was there in the movie all along.