UFC champ Zhang says acting 'experiment' and fighting not so different
Zhang co-stars as a fisherwoman with mutism in After Typhoon, a feminist indie film exploring themes of sexual assault and friendship by award-winning director Li Yu.
On the surface it's an unexpected twist for the first Chinese mixed martial arts fighter to win a UFC title and the current strawweight champion, who first claimed her crown by knocking out her opponent in 42 seconds.
"It's not really a career transition, I see it more as an experiment," the 35-year-old told AFP in Shanghai.
"I believe everything is connected in some way and there's actually a lot in common between fighting and acting... I find it really interesting -- a fresh experience."
Zhang told the Hollywood Reporter that she was initially against the idea of being in a film, but was compelled by the character of A Xi.
Because she cannot speak, "I had to express emotions through eye contact and body language", Zhang told AFP.
This is where her fighting experience came in useful because it has helped her "develop a richer physical language", she said.
Li, the director, has said Zhang's performance, especially as a first-time actress, was "truly astonishing".
"Her authenticity was bone-deep. It wasn't performance -- she was living as that person," she told a post-screening session at an offshoot of the Beijing International Film Festival.
The movie was initially scheduled for wider release in April but has been postponed.
Zhang suggested it might be released over the summer.
The MMA star, who received the script at the same time she was preparing for a title defence, has taken some lessons from her time on set back to the octagon.
"When the director would call 'cut' and say we had to do another take, and then another, that taught me patience," she laughed.
Previously, when told by the coach to do another set of exercises in training, "I'd be really frustrated".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
In Cairo, the little indie cinema that could
Zawya, meaning "perspective" in Arabic, has weathered the storm of Egypt's economic upheavals, championing a more artistic approach from the historical heart of the country's golden age of cinema. Zawya was born in the post-revolutionary artistic fervour of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak. "There was this energy where people wanted to produce and create, not just in cinema, but in all the arts, you could feel it," said Zawya founder Youssef Shazli. In the time since, it has escaped a wave of closures -- some forced -- of art centres across the capital. Egypt had long been known as the Hollywood of the Arab world, but in the decades since its mid-century heyday, the domestic industry has largely been restricted to crowd-pleasing blockbusters. "It's often said that we're lucky to have a large film industry, with infrastructure already in place," said filmmaker Maged Nader. "But the truth is this industry operates solely on a commercial logic," leaving little room for independent filmmakers, he added. Yet Zawya has survived in its niche, in part due to the relative financial stability afforded to it by its parent company Misr International Films. Founded in 1972 by Egyptian cinematic giant Youssef Chahine -- Shazli's great uncle -- the company continues to produce and distribute films. Young talent For Shazli, Zawya is "a cinema for films that don't fit into traditional theatres". But for young cinephiles like 24-year-old actress Lujain, "it feels like home," she told AFP as she joined a winding queue into the larger of Zawya's two theatres. Since 2014, Zawya's year-round programming -- including both local and international short films, documentaries and feature films -- has secured the loyalty of a small but passionate scene. Its annual short film festival, held every spring, has become a vital space for up-and-coming directors trying to break through a system that leaves little room for experimentation. "I didn't even consider myself a filmmaker until Zawya screened my short," said Michael Samuel, 24, who works in advertising but says the cinema rekindled his artistic ambition. For many, that validation keeps them going. "Zawya has encouraged more people to produce these films because they finally have somewhere to be seen," said the cinema's manager, Mohamed Said. When Mostafa Gerbeii, a self-taught filmmaker, was looking for a set for his first film shoot, he also turned to the cinema. Without a studio or a budget, Zawya "just lent us their hall for free for a whole day", he said, saving the young director 100,000 Egyptian pounds (around $2,000) to rent a location. The heir The light of its marquee spilling onto downtown Cairo's Emad al-Din Street, Zawya is the 21st-century heir to a long artistic tradition that still lingers, though often hidden away in corners of the district's broad avenues. "It's a unique neighbourhood with an equally unique flavour of artistic and intellectual life," said Chihab El Khachab, a professor at the University of Oxford and author of the book "Making Film in Egypt". Starting in the late 19th century, the area was home to the city's biggest theatres and cabarets, launching the careers of the Arab world's most celebrated singers and actors. Today, its arteries flowing out of Tahrir square -- the heart of the 2011 uprising -- the neighbourhood is home to new-age coworking spaces and galleries, side by side with century-old theatres and bars. Yet even as it withstands the hegemony of mall multiplexes, Zawya cannot escape Egypt's pervasive censorship laws. Like every cinema in Egypt, each film must pass through a state censors before screening. "Over time, you learn to predict what will slide and what won't," Shazli said. But even the censors' scissors have failed to cut off the stream of ambition among burgeoning filmmakers. "Around Zawya, there's a lot of talent -- in every corner," Shazli said. © 2025 AFP
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Ancient Myanmar ball game battles for survival in troubled nation
"Once you get into playing the game you forget everything," says 74-year-old Win Tint. "You concentrate only on your touch and you concentrate only on your style." Chinlone is Myanmar's national game and dates back centuries. Branded a blend of sport and art, it is often played to music and is typically practised differently by men and women. Male teams in skimpy shorts stand in a circle using stylised strokes of their feet, knees and heads to pass the ball in a game of "keepy-uppy", with a scoring system impenetrable to outsiders. Women play solo like circus performers -- kicking the ball tens of thousands of times per session while walking tightropes, twirling umbrellas and perching on chairs balanced atop beer bottles. Teen prodigy Phyu Sin Phyo hones her skills at the court in Yangon, toe-bouncing a burning ball while spinning a hula-hoop -- also on fire. "I play even when I am sick," says the 16-year-old. "It is important to be patient to become a good chinlone player." But play has plunged in recent years, with the Covid-19 pandemic followed by the 2021 military coup and subsequent civil war. Poverty rates are shooting up and craftsmen face increasing problems sourcing materials to make balls. But the rising and falling rhythm of the game offers its practitioners a respite. "When you hear the sound of kicking the ball it's like music," Win Tint, vice-chairman of the Myanmar Chinlone Federation, told AFP. "So when you play chinlone, you feel like dancing." 'Play day is happy' Different versions of the hands-free sport known as "caneball" are widely played across Southeast Asia. In Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia players kick and head the ball over a net in the volleyball-style "sepak takraw". In Laos it is known as "kataw" while Filipinos play "sipa" -- meaning kick. In China, people kicking around weighted shuttlecocks in parks is a common sight. Myanmar's iteration dates back 1,500 years, according to popular belief. Some cite a French archaeologist's discovery of a replica silver chinlone ball at a pagoda built in the Pyu era of 200 BC to 900 AD. It was initially practised as a casual pastime, a fitness activity and for royal entertainment. But in 1953 the game was given rules and a scoring system, as part of an effort to codify Myanmar's national culture after independence from Britain. "No one else will preserve Myanmar's traditional heritage unless the Myanmar people do it," said player Min Naing, 42. Despite the conflict, players still gather under motorway overpasses, around street lamps blighted with wartime blackouts and on dedicated chinlone courts -- often ramshackle open-sided metal sheds with concrete floors. "For a chinlone man, the day he plays is always a happy day. I am happy, and I sleep well at night," says Min Naing. "On the days I don't play it, I feel I am missing something." - 'Respect the chinlone' - But Win Tint is concerned that participation rates are falling. "I worry about this sport disappearing," says master chinlone ball maker Pe Thein, toiling in a sweltering workshop in Hinthada, 110 kilometres (70 miles) northwest of Yangon. "That's the reason we are passing it on through our handiwork." Cross-legged men shave cane into strips, curve them with a hand crank and deftly weave them into a melon-sized ball with pentagonal holes, boiled in a vat of water to seal its strength. "We check our chinlone's quality as if we're checking diamonds or gemstones," adds the 64-year-old Pe Thein. "As we respect the chinlone, it respects us back." Each ball takes around two hours to make and earns business-owner Maung Kaw $2.40 apiece. But supplies of the best-quality rattan he covets from nearby Rakhine are dwindling. There is fierce fighting in the state between the military and opposition groups that now control almost all of it. Farmers are too fearful to plunge into the jungle battleground to cut cane, says Maung Kaw, endangering his profession. "It should not be that we have players but no chinlone makers," says the 72-year-old.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
'The Beautiful Game' falls for AI's charms
Warsaw-based Vision, which says it is unique in gathering data by using AI, has two immediate goals -- women's football and re-igniting Generation Z's interest in watching sports, their co-founder Pawel Osterreicher told AFP. The company -- which numbers the South American football body CONMEBOL and their Central American counterparts CONCACAF among their clients -- are able to capture data from matches from just a single camera angle. This makes gathering data much cheaper, as players do not need to wear any technology, and there is no need for multiple cameras to capture the data, thanks to AI. Vision's programme -- which was used at last year's Copa America -- was recently awarded FIFA certification. Osterreicher says AI can provide data on aspects of football that humans cannot, such as acceleration, passing lanes, heat maps and zones of control. He said the data can help the 'Goliaths' as well as the 'Davids', just as it did by assisting in second-tier side Wisla Krakow's giantkilling exploits on their way to lifting the Polish Cup in 2024. However, despite this run of success the 36-year-old says he and his colleagues are not aiming for the men's World Cup or this year's men's World Club Cup. Instead they are targeting covering the inaugural women's World Club Cup in 2028, which fits in nicely with another of their aims, to halt the haemorrhage of Generation Z -- people born from 1997 to 2012 -- watching sports. "What we see right now in the sports market in general is that women's sport grows at a much faster pace," he said. "Of course, from a lower base, but a much faster pace than men's sport. "You can argue that men's is saturated. But one of the best investment opportunities and development opportunities in sports are currently women's franchises, women's sport and all the media around it." 'More with less' Osterreicher says this could be a way to reboot the interest of younger viewers "who are flocking away". The young "expect to get excited immediately... I have five seconds and if not, I'm swiping away. "So women's sport is also potentially an opportunity for sport to attract younger audiences because maybe it's just too boring just to watch all the same setups, all the same guys," he said. "So lots of investment is being directed in women's sports and from our perspective as well. "We're agnostic. Human is a human. We capture data on humans, not on particular genders. "But definitely, more and more customers are asking us to just cover women's leagues." Osterreicher -- who along with his colleagues set up the company five years ago -- says he is a "realist", adding not everyone should use the technology as it is a "complex thing, it requires certain resources." Nevertheless Wisla's cup victory showed that you "can do more with less". "You can have a smaller team wisely using technology and then beating the big guys," he said. He added, though, that it is not a "silver bullet" as human frailties can come into play. "A player might have had a row with his wife and be off his game," he said. While this technology is already tried and tested, Osterreicher and his team are months away from dealing another card to try and claw back the young audience, whose loyalty has switched to TikTok, Netflix and other platforms. "The way for sports to address it is to create content which is much more to their liking," he said. "So you can recreate a game in 3D, which is what we are planning to do. "So imagine a legendary goal being scored, or any goal being scored, and you switch to a replay from player perspective. "So we are potentially entering the world where sport needs to reinvent itself a little bit, change the way it's being served, in order to not lose those people to TikToks and the video games and mobile games of the world."
