No one has done as much for the modern Chinese movie industry as venerated directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou.
So as China celebrates its centenary of cinema this month, it's apt that the country's leading lights are going head-to-head at the box office.
Surprisingly though, Zhang has gone back to basics with a modestly budgeted art film, while Chen has boldly taken over the epic martial arts mantle with the most expensive Chinese-made film ever made.
Despite the films' differences, talk of rivalry is rife as Chen's US$42 million fantasy film The Promise opened in Beijing last week, just a week before the release of Zhang's down-to-earth Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.
But Zhang is downplaying the significance.
"Everyone is putting The Promise and Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles together, and I think this is a good thing because if everyone is talking about them then they will do well at the box office," he said.
"But for myself, I don't really pay attention to this because I think that to make movies by competing against someone else is just too ridiculous. It should be enough just to try to make a good film."
The two directors are credited with bringing Chinese film into the modern era and as film budgets have grown, both Chen and Zhang have focused on making commercially viable films that are steeped in special effects and able to attract large audiences both in and outside of China.
"I have felt all along that in today's film industry it is impossible to completely divorce oneself from special effects. Special effects help us expand our imagination, help us realize the things we have in our heads," said Chen.
Chen's use of special effects in The Promise goes beyond Zhang's 2002 film Hero and last year's House of Flying Daggers, both of which wowed audiences with their fight scenes and dazzling cinematography.
Hero reportedly reaped some 280 million yuan (US$34.5 million) in box office receipts worldwide, setting a record as the biggest grossing Chinese-made film and topping the United States' box office for two consecutive weeks. House of Flying Daggers was last year's top Chinese cinematic money maker, grossing some 153 million yuan.
But Chen has upped the ante with The Promise, to be distributed in the United States as "Master of the Crimson Armor."
Shanghai's Oriental Morning Post predicted the film would outdo Hero at the box office, praised Chen for focusing his story line on China's longtime philosophical obsession with fate and trying to change one's destiny.
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles is a return to Zhang's mid-career, lower-budget works such as Qiu Ju Goes to Court, Not One Less and The Road Home, touching stories of individuals struggling through life.
(Shenzhen Daily December 20, 2005)
