Chen Kaige's latest fantasy epic The Promise finally defeated films including Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, Shanghai Dreams and Peacock last month to get the nod from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) to compete for the 2006 foreign film Oscar.

According to online Chinese Business View on October 9, 92 percent of filmgoers at a week of early October premiere screenings in Chengdu gave it the thumbs up, and it is due to be released worldwide in December.

As the only submission to the Academy Awards from the mainland, the 300 million-yuan saga follows the magical story of a princess (Cecilia Cheung) who becomes the object of affection and intrigue for a duke (Nicholas Tse), a general (Hiroyuki Sanada) and a slave (Jang Dong-Kun).

Both domestic film experts and audiences have hailed the film as a strong contender for the Oscar, but Chen, who just finished polishing its special effects in Columbia, is still concerned about the movie's future.

"There has been an acknowledged understanding inside the Oscars, which is to block Chinese films," Chen said.

Since 1990, four mainland films – Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou (1990), Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and Hero (2003), and Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine (1993) – have been nominated for best foreign film Oscar, but none has been successful.

Taiwan-based director Ang Lee won it with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in 2001, along with the awards for best cinematography, best original score and best art direction. But a Sina.com article on October 9 attributed this to the director's western education.

"Usually the Oscar jury members are aged and still have a bias against China's films. If a Chinese movie wants to win, it has to be much better than other contenders," Yin Hong from Tsinghua University told Shenyang Today, according to China.com on October 9.

In 1993, Chen's Farewell My Concubine was one of the most acclaimed candidates for best foreign film, and it had already won best film at the Golden Globe Awards and Cannes Film Festival. To many people's surprise it lost to the Spanish film Belle Epoque, and several jury members were quoted saying the reason was that Chen's film had got enough prizes already.

Han Sanping, general producer of the new film, said: "If the Chinese film industry doesn't make big breakthroughs, it will soon falter as former Soviet Union and old Italian films did. We need to produce five to ten films like The Promise per year to be a strong industry." On predicting the film's fortunes for the Oscars, Han said: "Personally I think The Promise is an odds-on favorite."

Yin Hong also thought highly of the film: "The key point is the translation work, since the actors' lines are really thought-provoking."

Alongside The Promise, two other Chinese language films, Hong Kong director Peter Chan's Perhaps Love and Taiwan filmmaker Tsai Ming-Liang's The Wayward Cloud, will also bid for best foreign language film.

The results of the nominations will be unveiled in January, with the award ceremony slated for March at Los Angeles' Kodak Theater.

China's efforts in bidding for the best foreign picture Oscar:

The Promise by Chen Kaige (2006)
Hero by Zhang Yimou (2003)　
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon by Ang Lee (2001 winner)
Eat Drink Man Woman by Ang Lee (1995)
The Wedding Banquet by Ang Lee (1994)
Farewell My Concubine by Chen Kaige (1993)
Raise the Red Lantern by Zhang Yimou (1991)
Ju Dou by Zhang Yimou (1990)

(China.org.cn by Li Xiao, October 24, 2005)