Zhang Ziyi Makes People Angry

Oh racial disharmony, what the world be without you? Seems Memoirs of a Geisha starring Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh, and Ken Watanabe is causing quite the uproar in both China and Japan. You see, Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh are both Chinese, and in the film, they both play Japanese characters. While this may seem trivial to the western world, there is the little matter that a certain mutual dislike between China and Japan has been brewing for quite some time, like a few thousand years, and was more recently inflamed during World War II, when the Japanese invaded China. Tensions over the film have been running very high, and Zhang has been at the centre of the controversy, even being denounced by her fellow countrymen for playing the famous Geisha Sayuri, reports Yahoo! News.

In fact, it looks like a sex scene between Zhang and Japanese costar Watanabi may be cut from the Chinese release of the film. Shanghaiist revealed that the release date of the film in China has been pushed back one month to allow for scenes to be edited or cut entirely.

I think it's all a bit silly, but no one is listening to me. More Zhang Ziyi pictures after the jump.