More in common than meets the eye

A pair of films by two acclaimed directors recently hit Chinese screens, and though they are very different they share a lot of similarities, says Raymond Zhou.

The pairing of Ang Lee and Feng Xiaogang did not start this season when Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and I Am Not Madame Bovary premiered in China one week apart and both directors shared a promotional event at Tsinghua University.

Four years ago, Feng's Back to 1942 followed Lee, in that case Life of Pi, also by only one week, which resulted in a wave of unplanned comparisons of the two movies and the brains behind them - comparisons that were not favorable for Feng.