Warlords conquer box office

Peter Chan's new martial arts epic, The Warlords, has beaten Ang Lee's Lust, Caution to the No.1 spot on the 2007 Chinese-language box-office. As of last Sunday, The Warlords is raked in 260 million yuan (US$35.74 million), 10 million more than Lee's espionage drama. Peter Chan the second Chinese director, after Zhang Yimou, to have topped the 200-million mark. The film, starring Andy Lau, Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Xu Jinglei, revolves around the story of three sworn brothers in the Qing Dynasty in the 1860s. This film does not have English subtitles.

Two new films open this weekend. Hong Kong-based filmmaker Danny Pang, In Love with the Dead, stars Shawn Yue and Stephy Tang. In the film, a young female cancer patient (Stephy Tang) and her partner (Shawn Yue) experience supernatural occurrences after their relationship fails.

Everyday urban life in modern China is the subject of Lucky Dog, an engaging drama from first-time writer-director Zhang Meng. In Chinese, the title is an expression which means "people with big ears have lots of luck." The film, which focuses on a retired working-class man, showcases the dry humor of well-known comedian Fan Wei, who took out a Best Actor Award at the Montreal Film Festival in 2003 for The Parking Attendant in July.

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Other films playing this weekend in Beijing cinemas include:

Linger, stars Li Bingbing and Vic Zhou. Drama about a lawyer whose life falls apart after death of her lover.

My Blueberry Nights: Follow Nora Jones and Jude Law in this moody road movie by Wong Kar Wai. It's his first English feature film.

Blinkers: Spanish soccer comedy and the first imported foreign film of 2008.