Chinese Film Industry Quotes

There's huge potential in China. They have about 50,000 screens and they need content, which we produce a lot.

Zhang Yimou is one of the best directors on mainland China.

After the Revolution in '49, all the films were propaganda. They serviced the government and carried the message that the government wants to relay to the people. But I think, in the last 10 years, because the film market is opening and there's an expansion of all the cinemas in China, it's now a lot like Hollywood productions.

We did two films [Kung Fu Panda], because the first two films were so embraced by the Chinese audiences we wanted to make something we could push further and since this is a co-production, it seemed like the perfect time to create something that felt native to Chinese audiences.

It's pretty easy to make a film in China. A few years ago I just walked into the office and let them know I wanted to make a movie called 'Red Cliff' and they were so excited. They said, 'Let's do it!' It's that simple.

To suddenly be working with one of the top-10 directors in the world, plus the film was in China, I almost blurted out, "How much do I have to pay?" It was just like a dream come true. That was an amazing experience.

Audiences in mainland China know how to discuss movies.

I think it would be really fun to film a drama in a foreign country. If the opportunity presents itself, I want to film a Chinese production.

I like to go back to Chinese film-making from time to time. I don't think I can make Chinese films back to back; it's such a big effort. I'd have to take a very long break.

In mainland China, there are many good theaters - sometimes better than Hong Kong.

Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time; we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.

I'm very pessimistic about that, no matter how hard we may try. The Chinese market is huge, but out of last year's $2 billion box office, $1.8 billion was taken in by foreign movies, and just $200 million by our own movies, no matter how much we have learned of their techniques, or their good practices. The Hollywood movies imported into China are all good movies; does the U.S. make lousy movies? Yes, too many lousy movies, but the imports are good films, so how can they not be box office hits? They're all hits.

The second time I was banned was when I directed a film called Xiu Xiu. I was banned for three years from China.

China's cinema has been rising for some time; it has more exposure, so my chances of becoming internationally known are better. But the first thing I have to do is learn English. If I can grasp the language, then perhaps I can think about the U.S.

It is true that as he film market in China has grown, actors' and actresses' compensation has grown quite a bit. Different actors have different kind of deals. Some take percentages, some sign contracts with a company, some take a simple cash payment. But the growth also means there are many more actors out there. Competition has gotten much stiffer, too.

The industry and support in China has really matured because there are so many productions there. At the same time, there's been a lot of changes in the market, which I think also has enabled productions like 'The Grandmaster' to happen and to be possible to shoot in China.

We want to assist China's soft power; we want to develop a vibrant young cinema in China. The average American has no understanding whatsoever of China. We'd like to create a young generation to tell their stories on a world stage. We can make history as well as make money.

As a student in Beijing in 1996, I sometimes marveled at the sheer obscurity of the movies that somehow made it onto pirated discs in China.

We're not going to scramble to make Chinese movies that we don't believe in; we're not going to make co-productions that we don't believe in, and we're not going to try to jam product into China that doesn't make sense.

All movies in China are censored. Out of 600 movies produced in China, only 60 are allowed to show in theatres.

The future of the world's film industry is in China because we have 1.3 billion people.

Hong Kong cinema is something you can't duplicate anyway.

I love Chinese movies.