Despite the box-office success of The Myth, Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan said Wednesday that he was not happy with the domestic movie market.
"I won't say anything about The Myth," Chan started his speech at a celebration party held in Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, to hail the new movie's box-office success. "I will say something about Chinese movie market," he added.
"Whenever South Korean stars come to China, our domestic newspapers dedicate the most striking headline coverage to them. But their (South Korean) newspapers don't give much space to the visiting Chinese stars and leave the main space for their own stars. This is exactly the exponent of national spirit," said an emotional Chan.
The prosperity of South Korean movies doesn't mean their movies have high quality, Chan said, adding that it largely attributed to the support of South Korean people.
Chinese audience should support Chinese stars and Chinese movies more, said Chan.
The box-office volume of The Myth in the first four screening days reached 30.5 million yuan (US$3.76 million). The film received 8 million yuan in box-office takings on its first day, the best takings for all the films in domestic cinemas this year. It broke the 7 million yuan debut day record Initial D and Seven Swords set earlier this year.
The film's publicist, Yu Dong, said they were confident that the film will set a new box-office record during the upcoming National Day holidays.
(Eastday.com October 6, 2005)
