Chinese director Feng Xiaogang faced a battery of sharp questions on his former blockbusters while promoting his latest war epic Assembly in Fudan University on Sunday. The director was also invited to be a guest professor at the university.

Chinese director Feng Xiaogang (the second from right) and the crew of his new movie Assembly walk the red carpet at the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Film Fest on June 16.

Jinghua Times reports that the director took the new movie's lead actors, Zhang Hanyu and Deng Chao, to Shanghai's prestigious Fudan University, to chat face-to-face with students. Feng believes that his new movie Assembly is a touching story that would draw audiences away from Peter Chan's The Warlords, which will also be in cinemas at the end of this year.

The director confessed that throughout his career, from A World without Thief and The Banquet to Assembly, he has experimented and transformed his style. The former two have already been proven successful experiments with good box office takings.

It reported that Feng responded to criticism that his success at the box office leaves precious room for other Chinese movies, saying that Chinese filmmakers should learn from South Korean and other Asian filmmakers and improve the industrialization and professionalism of Chinese films.

He even added that some people should end their hatred for blockbusters.
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(CRI.cn June 19, 2007)