Even though a new high of 212 films were made in China in 2004, most of them never received a theatrical release, said Stanley Rosen, from East Asian Studies and Department of Political Science University of Southern California.

    Chinese films have taken off internationally, even conquering the notoriously parochial American market where filmgoers "historically have avoided movies with subtitles as if they were homework," Rosen quoted May 9, 2005, issue of Newsweek as saying.

    "The most successful Chinese films have all been martial arts films, where language - and the disadvantages associated with subtitles - are less important than the action on the screen," he said.

    "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" gained 208 million US dollars of box office around world, but it pocketed just 3 percent totally in the China mainland, Hong Kong and Japan, where it should have been more palatable.

    The investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan saw a fiasco in their homeland as Hollywood bought the distribution at a very low price, said Huang Shixian.

    All Chinese films successful in the United States were kungfu films made in a Hollywood style, which easily leads to a simplified understanding of Chinese culture and turns China into a manufacturing base of a type of Hollywood films, Hong said.

    Zhang Yimou failed to secure the public release of his urban comedy "Keep Cool" in the United States, where Feng Xiaogang retrieved just 820 US dollars in a week's showing of his "Big Shots Funeral."

    Chinese critics worried that Feng's satire may elude the western audiences owing to the language and cultural differences.

    A New York Times review said that Feng's film offered "a vastly different view of Chinese society than most Western moviegoers used to seeing."

    In addition, the capital convergence at renowned filmmakers has hindered new directors.

    "New directors have to change their creating ideas to adapt to investors sometimes," said Lu Chuan, a Chinese up-and-coming director, known for his "Kekexili Mountain Patrol," about saving the Tibetan antelope from ruthless poachers.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)