Shanghai film fete offers clues about upcoming releases

As for how China's cinema sector is growing, Cheng Wu, the CEO of Tencent Pictures, says: "China saw its cinema admissions reach 1.72 billion in 2018, overtaking the United States to top the world. Besides, TV and online series received more than 48 billion hits last year."

But despite the numbers, the domestic entertainment industry is undergoing a painful slowdown, as China with its huge market and population continues to yearn for quality content.

And this is something that the Beijing-based studio Bona Film Group is focusing on by recruiting Hong Kong talents to direct Chinese mainland patriotic epics-exemplified by Tsui Hark's The Taking of the Tiger Mountain (2014) and Dante Lam's Operation Mekong (2016).

Separately, on Wednesday, the company released two films, both based on true stories of Chinese heroes-The Chinese Pilot directed by Andrew Lau and The Bravest by Tony Chan. Besides, the company is also scheduled to release Shandong-born director Ning Haiqiang's Chairman Mao 1949 on Sept 12.

The Chinese Pilot starring actor Zhang Hanyu is about Liu Chuanjian, the captain who last year saved 119 passengers on a Sichuan Airlines flight when the windshield shattered and his copilot was sucked halfway out of the cockpit over the Tibetan Plateau.