Seeking to collaborate

Australian movie and TV producers unveil projects combining Chinese and Australian elements. Xu Fan reports.

Over the past few years, Australian filmmaker Tony Coombs has toured Yunnan province in southwestern China many times. He went there as he was fascinated by the ethnic Yi fable of Ashima, a beautiful young woman who rejects an evil lord son's proposal, to pursue her true love.

Believing that the story could easily be made accessible to an international audience with a well-developed storyline, Coombs did research on the local history, watched the 1964 Chinese movie Ashima, and wrote a script for an animated feature called Girl of Ashima.