And what is it they know? Herewith, straight from the Chinese Internet, a translated and summarized selection of the most widespread explanations for Jing’s rapid rise: Of course this doesn’t mean she’s untalented or without potential, but Jing has now become an urban legend, someone about whom everybody “knows” “the real story.” Of course, what they know is unknowable, contradictory, and impossible to verify (if not just plain impossible). Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the director of Kong: Skull Island recently told the Singapore Straits Times that working with Jing was difficult in large part because of her limited English, and that her role in the film had to undergo significant cuts. Since one of the main things Hollywood producers look for in a crossover superstar is fluent English, we can say with near certainty on the basis of her stilted delivery in The Great Wall that Jing’s elocution is not a factor in her getting Hollywood gigs. Add the Internet into the mix, and it goes to the next level, a web of conspiratorial, celebrity-denigrating innuendo that is wildly judgmental, sexist, and almost impossible to respond to. And in the vacuum left by the lack of a reliable independent press, Chinese gossip, with its penchant for detailed embellishment and invasive speculation can make TMZ look like The New York Review of Books. Naturally, Chinese filmgoers are wondering what’s up.
Evidently, someone at the studio liked what they saw: before the film was finished, Jing was slotted into Legendary’s blockbuster titles, Pacific Rim: Uprising and the just-released Kong: Skull Island, immediately lifting her to heights of international visibility above Tang Wei, Fan Bingbing, Zhou Xun or nearly any of China’s other well-established superstar “Heavenly Queens.” When Legendary Entertainment began production on its megabudget US-China co-production, The Great Wall, Jing was chosen to star opposite Matt Damon as a woman warrior commanding a vast army against fearsome supernatural monsters.
After studying at both the Beijing Dance Academy and the Beijing Film Academy, both reliable feeders into China’s show business ecosystem, she spent relatively little time working her way up via supporting roles and television series before finding herself thrust into the spotlight alongside stars like Sun Honglei, Jackie Chan, and Chow Yun-Fat.
“Although it was developed for commercial purposes, I felt there was room for me to play and put many elements of Chinese culture into it,” he said.In the last few years, 28-year-old starlet Jing Tian has ascended with unusual speed into the white-hot center of China’s entertainment world.
Zhang told the AP that the script took Hollywood seven years to develop. The use of monsters and a hero saving the world are very much Hollywood techniques In the movie, China’s Great Wall has been built to keep out menacing, otherworldly creatures. The use of monsters and a hero saving the world are very much Hollywood techniques.
Eddie Peng of the boxing drama “Unbeatable” and Lu Han, a former boy band sensation, also appear. It also stars Pedro Pascal of “Game of Thrones” as Damon’s sword-wielding partner in crime, Willem Dafoe and Hong Kong’s Andy Lau. The film is the first Sino-Hollywood co-production and first English-language film for Zhang, the director of the romantic Kung Fu drama “House of Flying Daggers” and the opulent opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.