Answering the kungfu call

Hollywood director Doug Liman is producing his first China film, The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman. Liu Wei reports

Doug Liman, director of Bourne Identity and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, is producing a Chinese film for the first time.

The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman is a kungfu comedy directed by Chinese filmmaker Wuershan for Fox International Productions (FIP), a division of 20th Century Fox that produces and acquires local language films of other countries and territories, including China.

"My role is to introduce Wuershan to the world, and the world to Wuershan," the 45-year-old filmmaker says.

Wuershan, 38, has built a reputation as a commercial director. Butcher is his first feature film for theatrical release.

Earlier this year, his producer Daniel Yu showed a rough cut to Sanford Panitch, who runs FIP and liked what he saw. Panitch then invited Liman to become involved in the post-production, trailers and now, promoting the movie.

"I am introducing the world to a new wave of Chinese filmmakers," Liman says. "There is an attitude in Wuershan's film - it's a kind of confidence to borrow from the past but also break with the past."

One example is a brothel scene, where it feels like any other Chinese period drama, until the madam breaks out into a rap.

"This is not your grandfather's type of Chinese movie," Liman says.

The film's structure, telling a story from three different points of view, has been seen in many movies, including Liman's Go, but Wuershan "is jumping through time in a way I cannot think another movie has quite done", Liman says.

The film tells the story of a mystic blade with the power to change its owners' fates. It is expected in theaters on Nov 25.

Tony Safford, executive vice president, Worldwide Acquisitions for 20th Century Fox, Searchlight and FIP, said at a news conference last week he thought the film was playful and surprising.

Clearly, the soaring domestic Chinese box office is drawing Hollywood's attention.

China's box office gross hit 4.8 billion yuan ($705 million) in the first half of 2010, about the entire earnings of 2008.

At the Full Blossom Film Festival, held this weekend by the China Filmmakers' Association, it was anticipated that China's box office gross would reach between 30 billion yuan and 40 billion yuan in 2015, making it the world's second-largest movie market.

Additionally, China will build 1,500 cinema screens this year, raising the total to 6,000 and the number is expected to double by the end of 2015.

Though China imports just 20 foreign films a year for theatrical release, Hollywood studios have found a way to gain market share, by co-producing with local filmmakers.

Disney made three co-productions in 2007 and followed up with another in 2009. It even created a local version of its smash hit, High School Musical.

Fox's first Chinese-language co-production, Hot Summer Days, with Huayi Brothers last year, cost $2 million and grossed more than $19 million.

The potential of the market appears to override fears over censorship.

"I do feel like filmmakers all work within limitations," Liman says, citing Fair Game, his new film that is critical of the US government. "The film might not have been made in the US because of capitalism. Audiences don't like political movies, so you don't need to censor them. For the most part the system just automatically censors them."

What's inspiring about teaming with Wuershan, Liman says, is that whatever space they are given, some filmmakers are telling great stories. "And these collaborations with artists, even if we live in different systems, build roads for the future," he says.