A movie starring Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi has been cleared for release on the Chinese mainland on April 25, after a three-year delay caused by disputes between its investors.

 

Jasmine Women, directed by Hou Yong, is a triple romance of three women - Mo, her daughter Li and Li's adopted daughter Hua, all of whom are played by Zhang.

 

The movie tries to capture the lives of Chinese women during different periods of the 20th century and also stars Jiang Wen, Chen Chong, Liu Ye and Lu Yi.

 

Jasmine Women, which finished shooting in June 2003 and won The Grand Jury Prize at the 7th Shanghai International Film Festival in 2004, had been delayed for public release due to disputes among its four investors and distributors.

 

 

A movie has its own fate, which often doesn't depend on the performances of the director and actors," Zhang Ziyi told Xinhua News Agency after hearing the news of the release.

 

"Over the last three years, whenever I heard news about the suspended movie I phoned Hou, even if I was in the United States. What we talked about most was our hopelessness and anxiety. Now I believe all the staff in our working group are very happy on hearing the news," she added.

 

Yang Jingsong, with the Asian Union Film & Media, the film's distributor, said Jasmine Women will be released in Japan and Southeast Asia in May this year and in Europe and North America after June.

 

Hou worked as the cinematographer in Not One Less and The Road Home, both directed by Zhang Yimou, Hou's schoolmates in the Beijing Film Academy, in 1999.

 

Jasmine Women was the second film directed by Hou, following Blood from Heaven (1991).

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2006)