The complete series: Reel China

October 2, 2011

Reel China: Land of cinematic opportunity

Born in northern China and raised in Beijing, Sally Liu came of age in the 1990s and dreamed of becoming a filmmaker. With the world's most populous nation swelling with thousands of new cinemas, big-budget productions proliferating and box-office grosses multiplying, the movies in China aren't just glamorous, they're a serious growth industry.

7:00 AM PDT, August 24, 2011

Reel China: U.S. film producers are engaging the Chinese

China bought $91.9-billion worth of U.S. goods last year, including boatloads of medical devices, precious metals and electrical equipment. But when it comes to America's most celebrated cultural export — Hollywood movies — crossing China's borders has proved more difficult than climbing the Great Wall.

August 17, 2011

REEL CHINA

Chinese make big push into animation

Entering the campus of the largest animation production facility in China, visitors are greeted by life-size statues of Disney and Pixar characters: Belle dancing with the Beast, Mowgli and Baloo sitting on a tree trunk and Buzz and Woody in a classic buddy pose.

July 14, 2011

Reel China: Will it play in Peoria and Shanghai?

Moviegoers in China enthusiastically see American films, yet the reverse is almost never true. But you'd think if there would be someone who might bridge the divide — someone whose personal background, connections and professional expertise could help bring Chinese films more into the U.S. mainstream — that person might look much like Wendi Murdoch.

July 3, 2011

Reel China: It's rough out West for Chinese films

When the Chow Yun-fat action-comedy epic "Let the Bullets Fly" opened in China last year, it quickly became a phenomenon. Lured by its splashy fight scenes and whip-snap dialogue, filmgoers swarmed theaters. The movie wound up taking in more than $100 million at the box office in China, the most for a homegrown film.

June 24, 2011

Reel China: Political maneuvers drive 'Beginning of the Great Revival's' success

— Political films can be a tough sell in many countries, to say the least. But director Huang Jianxin is confident that he's sitting on a blockbuster with "Beginning of the Great Revival," a historical epic detailing the founding of China's Communist Party.

March 16, 2011

Reel China: Hollywood tries to stay on China's good side

China has become such an important market for U.S. entertainment companies that one studio has taken the extraordinary step of digitally altering a film to excise bad guys from the Communist nation lest the leadership in Beijing be offended.

March 20, 2011

Reel China: Targets an elusive film fan — the Chinese American

For years, Chinese films shown in U.S. theaters have fallen into two distinct camps, both driven by largely white patrons: martial-arts movies for young men, such as Jet Li's "Hero," or critically acclaimed art-house fare, such as Kaige Chen's "Farewell My Concubine." Only rarely has a movie conquered both blocs, as did Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

March 6, 2011

China is on a cinema-building binge

Not long ago when Zhang Guomiao wanted to see a film, he'd head for the village square. There, itinerant cinema operators would unfurl a canvas screen, set up some static-filled speakers and show a grainy movie in the open air.

January 16, 2011

Cultural Exchange: Jonathan Kos-Read is 'the token white guy' in Chinese cinema

The rich, arrogant foreigner comes to China for business, but he ends up falling in love with what the script invariably calls an "Oriental beauty."