Taiwan GQ Magazine unveiled its annual Men of the Year list last week which includes notable famous male personages from across various industries and professions. This year Vic Zhou made the list and he attended the award’s ceremony last week and I’m here to share his photo spread from the December issue of GQ Magazine. Zai Zai was the only entertainer to make the list and the judges panel coined his selection as “The Birth of an Acting King” and actually went as far as to say he’s the successor to Tony Leung. That’s high high praise indeed and I’m thrilled for him whether some folks might argue Zai Zai actually merits the successor crown or not. The other six GQ men of the year range from Taiwan’s most famous baker to a baseball great to a cutting edge music producer and so forth. I actually watched a good chunk of Coming Home, the period war drama which netted Zai Zai his Golden Bell Best Actor Award recently, and he gave an incredible performance not just in the acting but in the preparation and method immersion into character. The drama is set in 1940’s Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony at that time, so many of the leads were required to speak Taiwanese and Japanese for their dialogue. Then it moved to China when Zai Zai’s character was conscripted into the Japanese army to fight the Mainland forces in China, so the dialogue switched to Mandarin Chinese. Zai Zai’s Taiwanese is pretty crappy so he had to brush up on it, but he didn’t even know Japanese and he had to memorize lots of Japanese dialogue phonetically. Same goes for his co-stars like Janine Chang and Lego Lee who played his younger brother. I watched an interview with the three of them when they were promoting the drama and Lego said that watching Zai Zai act was intense and eye-opening, and everyone on set was rather wary of him because he was so in character and his character was always stressed and moping. Ha, so true. Lego teased that initially they though Zai Zai had airs because he was the biggest star on set ergo he didn’t hang out when anyone, but later they all realized he was in character. One time Lego saw Zai Zai playing ping pong alone so Lego called him Second Brother (Er Ge) then Zai Zai responded by asking his “younger brother” to come keep him company. I hope Zai Zai comes back and makes a good Taiwan drama because with his clout he may get things pushed through that otherwise won’t get made.
GQ Men of the Year 2013 Vic Zhou:
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Nice…and aww at Lego realizing Vic was still in character and hanging out with him that way
AHHH HIS VOICE IS SO SEXAYYYY *pulls hair*
I hope Lego learned a lot from his Er Ge, because he is now my new favorite…hahahahha…I badly want to watch this movie! Vic +Lego + Janine!WOW..hope i can find an english sub for this..Thnx Koala for the updates:)
Awww. Wow. What a compliment, as well as an accomplishment and acknowledgement of his craft. Congratulations to a most deserving and talented actor and thank you for the update, Mrs Koala.
WOW, I see Jam Hsiao in that list too, I didn’t know he’s this influential in Taiwan, I know he’s famous but making it to the list of GQ is just wow.
Anyways, Vic Chou is damnnnnnnnn fine, he’s certainly still got his trademark melancholy stares. I watched a bit of Coming Home and thought it’s a pretty interesting drama and Lego’s character is very hot-blooded. There’s Lego and Vic in that drama, how can I miss it!?
Cool! The only actor in the list? Excellent.
Would you recommend Coming Home?
What a compliment to be named Tony Leung successor.
He still have long way to become someone like Tony Leung, but if he keeps honing his craft, I think its only matter of time.
But, everytime I see Vic Zhou and how well his acting now, I just can’t help but amazed.
Everyone still remember how bad his acting in Meteor Garden? He barely move any muscle and his eyes looks dead. Fast forward to 2013 and he become the next Tony Leung in GQ? Woaaaah…
wonder if Barbie has any regrets………….
well, I think Zai Zai started to do a nyc job in meteor garden.. he was always incharacter..but I can really say that HE IS EXCELLENT now!
Small correction here: he won the Golden Bell Best Actor award, not the Golden Horse.
Yeah, really 2013 was a fruitful year for our beloved ZZ. So deserving of him. Hope 2014 would be more fruitful. Love you ZZ!!!
ohhh your so handsome Zai Zai
His asset are his eyes… deep emotions without speaking lines …
His asset are his eyes… deep emotions without speaking lines required … just natural and underacting