The perfect blend

Alina Y.Qiu (right) and actor Kevin Spacey.

Silver Bear winner not afraid of risks

A global stage

The film was released in 2012 during the same period as Hollywood blockbusters The Avengers and Titanic 3-D so the viewership suffered. But it was a brave showing from a team of international filmmakers to make real Hollywood-type independent films in China.

"Inseparable is a China-financed domestic film, and the way it was being made is different from the typical co-productions," Qiu says. "I got involved with many co-production projects for many years but most of them never materialized."

The ones that got made rarely succeeded in both markets. And the number of co-productions has been shrinking.

One of the biggest challenges is to obtain the co-production permit from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

In China, 34 foreign films are permitted for theatrical release annually. The foreign production companies take in 25 percent from the box office revenue, but co-productions are exempt from the quota and treated as domestic films. That's why co-production became a popular concept for Western film companies to break into and bank on in the exploding China film market.

But in 2012, the administration tightened its control.

"A completely US story, some Chinese money, a few Chinese faces and some Chinese elements - these kind of films are not real co-productions," Zhang Pimin, then deputy chief of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, said in 2012.

Zhang reiterated that in an officially acknowledged co-production, at least one-third of the lead cast should be Chinese, the story should have Chinese elements and there should be Chinese investors.

"Because there is no rating system in China, the filmmakers have to make sure the content can be seen by an audience aged from 4 to 80," Qiu says.

"On top of that, co-productions have to have organically integrated Chinese elements in the story. It takes a long time to get a script approved. But often, investors are not that patient."

And what's even more difficult is to find a story that appeals to both markets.

Qiu often reads scripts featuring awkward jokes or cultural references that are neither realistic nor appealing.

"In one script, a Wall Street executive is relocated to Shanghai only to find a squat toilet that he doesn't know how to use in a luxury apartment. By the way, the story happens in Shanghai today, not in the '30s," she says.

"In other scripts, Chinese-American boys who do not speak a word of Chinese fall in love with Caucasian girls. In most cases for romantic comedies, the audience would prefer to see love stories between their own people, because they can relate to that better. Cross-cultural romance does exist but it's not mainstream."