All the right movies

By Liu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-13 09:19

Instead, Huayi set up its own distribution strategy and found partners in each region willing to follow its rules.

In Hong Kong, Huayi worked with Emperor Group and in Taiwan, it teamed with Walt Disney Studio Motion Picture International. The company also owns the film's copyright in the three regions.

Huayi invested $14 million in the movie, representing a 20 percent of the $70 million project. The company was involved in everything, from the details of the script to international sales, marketing and promotion.

Thanks to its understanding of China's policies and unique market, the brothers made helpful storyline suggestions. For example, the image of Jet Li's monk should not be too flighty or it could upset Chinese Buddhists.

Huayi also handled the film's translation into Chinese for mainland release.

Selecting such a stellar cast and crew, Wang says, was also a first for his company. The teaming of Chan and Li, the selection of director Rob Minkoff, the involvement of master choreographer Yuen Woo-ping and inclusion of Academy Award-winning cinematographer Peter Pau made up a dream team.

But the biggest leap forward, according to Wang, was the company's global vision.

"American audiences think it was a Hollywood film, for marketing in North America," he says.

"Here, people consider it a made-in-China production, because they see Li and Chan, and a loosely-adapted Monkey King story."

The biggest difficulty during the co-production, Wang recalls, was how to make the storyline acceptable to all audiences. The "family fun" strategy was the best solution.

"Some Chinese critics call it a 'banana film' which has yellow skin but is white inside," Wang says.

"Whatever it is called, I don't think this is a film for serious reviews at all.

"We designed it as a film for the whole family, just for fun."

Among China's private media groups, Huayi is one of the earliest few to test the waters of East-West cooperation.

As early as 2000, Huayi teamed with Columbia Pictures to produce Feng Xiaogang's Big Shot's Funeral (Da Wan).

It was a time of "day dreaming", Wang jokingly recalls. "We thought it was time to become rich overnight," he says.

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