Beverly Hills, Calif. ? Ziyi Zhang never thought about the American Dream. When she was growing up in Beijing, she was more interested in the Chinese Dream.

In a few short years, however, the 25-year-old actress has managed to live both dreams. She already is a popular movie actress in her homeland, and she is about to become a major star in this country.

Sitting in a booth in a fashionable Beverly Hills restaurant, giddy from a combination of excitement and lack of sleep, Zhang can barely contain her enthusiasm.

It’s been four months since she’s seen her family, but she has been way too busy to think about being homesick. When she’s not working up to 15 hours a day in her first starring role in an American film (“Memoirs of a Geisha,” directed by “Chicago’s” Rob Marshall and scheduled for a Christmas 2005 release), or promoting her new Chinese film (“House of Flying Daggers,” now opening in theaters), she’s tooling around L.A. in her new Lexus, with the sounds of Usher and Eminem blaring from the CD player.

“I’m so tired. I haven’t had a day off in weeks. But I’m having so much fun,” she says in quick machine-gun bursts between sips of tea, with her New York-based manager/interpreter by her side to help with words that might get lost in translation.

Not that she needs much help in the language department. After all, “Memoirs of a Geisha” is being filmed in English.

“I love the freedom I have in America,” she says with the gush of a new arrival. “I love the freedom to walk around and not be recognized. In Beijing, everybody knows what I look like, and people are always stopping me in the street and shouting my name. The newspapers run pictures of my house, and there are people always standing outside looking for me.

“But in America, I can go to the movies (favorite American movie star: Al Pacino), I can go to Las Vegas (favorite show: Celine Dion), and I can go to bookstores. I love going to bookstores so I can learn more English. That’s why I watch so many commercials on television; they help me learn English.”

Up-and-comer

She would be smart to enjoy the anonymity as long as she can because it probably won’t last forever.

Although American audiences might be vaguely familiar with her from two previous Chinese films, Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and Zhang Yimou’s “Hero,” or from a supporting role as a villain in the action-comedy “Rush Hour 2,” her face no doubt will become even more familiar as strong word-of-mouth spreads on “House of Flying Daggers.”

Also directed by the brilliant filmmaker Yimou, the new, subtitled film takes place in 859 A.D. near the end of the Tang Dynasty. The government is locked in a deadly battle with various rebel groups, the most notorious of which is called the House of Flying Daggers. Two local police officers go undercover to try to capture the new leader of the rebel group.

Their first stop is a brothel where one of the new dancers is rumored to be a member of the group. The dancer (Zhang) is blind, but she has many hidden talents, not the least of which is dancing.

“It is a beautiful love story with a lot of martial arts,” the actress says with a laugh.

Zhang, who trained as a dancer, insisted that she is not a martial artist in the same league as Jackie Chan and Jet Li, but approaches her martial-arts scenes as a dancer. Still, she trains in the martial arts for two months before every action movie.

Trust factor

This film required more training than others because she plays a dancer who is blind. She said she moved in with a 13-year-old blind girl in Beijing to study her movements. “House of Flying Daggers” is her eighth movie overall and her third movie for this director, whose film “Hero” was nominated two years ago for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category. He won top directing and screenwriting awards for “House of Flying Daggers” at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

“I like working with him because he knows what he wants,” the actress said. “Before we start shooting, he knows what the entire movie is going to look like. He cares about details, and I trust him a lot. When you trust your director, you never have to worry about your acting.”