Advertisement
Advertisement
East meets West
In this feature series, we spotlight world cinema where East meets West, including notable China-US co-productions.
Updated: 15 Jul, 2026
Advertisement
[1]
Why The Meg is the most successful China-US co-production ever
Despite negative reviews, giant shark movie The Meg, starring Jason Statham and Li Bingbing, made US$530 million to become the highest-grossing Chinese-American co-production yet. So what is its secret sauce?
07 May, 2021
[2]
How China-US co-production The Great Wall had a great fall
Designed to echo the success of popular fantasies such as Lord of the Rings and starring Matt Damon, The Great Wall was simply too unwieldy to succeed.
04 Jun, 2021
[3]
When Keanu Reeves directed martial arts movie Man of Tai Chi
Keanu Reeves made his directorial debut with this bilingual martial arts movie, which was a Chinese-American co-production. Tiger Chen plays a tai chi expert who sells his soul.
02 Jul, 2021
[4]
Warcraft the most successful video game adaptation ever thanks to China
The 2016 movie, co-produced by Chinese company Legendary Pictures, was a flop in the US but broke box office records in China thanks the popularity there of the World of Warcraft game franchise on which it is based.
06 Aug, 2021
[5]
Looper, film that rewrote the future of US-China co-productions
When Looper became one of the first major Hollywood films to be granted Chinese co-production status, all kinds of possibilities suddenly opened up.
10 Sep, 2021
[6]
How did Transformers: Age of Extinction make so much money in China?
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) was panned by American critics but became the highest grossing film in China. That was no surprise – it set out to appeal to the millions of Chinese Transformers fans.
08 Oct, 2021
[7]
Why China is the star of The Karate Kid, not Jackie Chan or Jaden Smith
‘A magical land,’ Dre Parker’s mother Sherry calls China in The Karate Kid remake, and the movie does it best to bear that out, from the Forbidden City to the Wudang mountains. Even the traffic jams look orderly.
05 Nov, 2021
[8]
How Marvel’s Iron Man 3 tried but failed to please Chinese viewers
From Fan Bingbing’s pointless cameo to brazen product placement, Marvel’s attempts to tailor the film for Chinese audiences stirred up considerable anger.
03 Dec, 2021
[9]
Why UK-China movie The Foreigner offered the best of both worlds
Jackie Chan, who was chosen over Donnie Yen, Andy Lau and Chow Yun-fat for the role of a father hunting his daughter’s killers, showed a darker side than usual.
07 Jan, 2022
[10]
How The Last Emperor pioneered film collaboration in China
Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor was the first Western movie to explore modern Chinese politics in detail and opened doors for future co-productions.
04 Feb, 2022
[11]
How Furious 7, unlike most other co-productions, won big in China
The huge box office success of Furious 7 showed its Chinese backers that sometimes it’s best to just bankroll a sure-fire blockbuster and keep out of the way.
04 Mar, 2022
[12]
How 2012’s The Expendables 2 short-changed Chinese viewers
The Expendables 2 had been planned as a China-US co-production and was meant to star Donnie Yen Ji-dan alongside Sylvester Stallone. Hasty changes had to be made to the script when that fell through.
01 Apr, 2022
[13]
How the China-set second sequel to The Mummy buried the popular franchise
Despite co-starring Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, and having some stunning locations, this US-China film fell totally flat, with one-dimensional characters, awful dialogue and terrible CGI.
06 May, 2022
[14]
How Jackie Chan’s The Forbidden Kingdom became a ‘Crouching Tiger for kids’
With Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Li Bingbing in the cast, and a crew including legendary fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, The Forbidden Kingdom should have been a better film.
03 Jun, 2022
[15]
Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun forgot one vital element: the Chinese
Spielberg’s 1987 epic, set in and filmed in Shanghai, doesn’t hold up, fraught as it is with syrupy scenes and unbalanced representation.
08 Jul, 2022
[16]
How The Dark Knight tried to court China with Hong Kong shoot, but failed
The second Batman film in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, starring Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman and Christian Bale, The Dark Knight was partly shot in Hong Kong – but never shown in Chinese cinemas.
05 Aug, 2022
[17]
Why changing the bad guys from Chinese to North Korean doesn’t always work
Red Dawn, starring Chris Hemsworth, started out with China as the aggressor, but this was changed to North Korea to appease Chinese audiences – who were never shown the film.
02 Sep, 2022
[18]
Did China ruin Richard Gere’s career after 1997 film Red Corner?
Red Corner, about an American lawyer trapped in a corrupt Chinese legal system, was highly critical of China, something that could have had a lasting impact on its star Richard Gere.
07 Oct, 2022
[19]
Dwayne Johnson’s Skyscraper a co-production that shows respect to China
Dwayne Johnson action movie Skyscraper, despite failing at the US box office, was nevertheless a blueprint for US-China co-production because it courted the Chinese market with respect.
04 Nov, 2022
[20]
Sam Neill couldn’t save it: first Sino-Australian film co-production flopped
Why this dragon didn’t roar: despite a cast that included Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill, Sino-Australian co-production The Dragon Pearl, with its ‘laughable’ CGI, was a flop.
02 Dec, 2022
[21]
Shot in China, why did Ultraviolet starring Milla Jovovich go so very wrong?
A super-stylised American sci-fi movie shot in China and starring Milla Jovovich, Ultraviolet (2006) had huge potential but bombed at the box office – ‘a criminal waste of time and talent’.
06 Jan, 2023
[22]
Why Brad Pitt was banned from China after 1997 movie Seven Years in Tibet
China was unhappy with the movie Seven Years in Tibet, which saw stars Brad Pitt and David Thewlis banned from the country and even put Sony’s multibillion-dollar business empire at risk.
04 Feb, 2023
[23]
Was Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim really a show of Hollywood power?
Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, inspired by Godzilla movies, was criticised by some in China for having geopolitical undertones, but the director said it was meant as “popcorn entertainment”.
03 Mar, 2023
[24]
Why US-China co-production The 355 failed to deliver, despite all-star cast
Penelope Cruz, Jessica Chastain and Fan Bingbing lead a powerful female cast in this spy thriller that sadly never lived up to its potential thanks to its lame dialogue, lacklustre set pieces and cliched characters.
07 Apr, 2023
[25]
How Jackie Chan vehicle Skiptrace put the clash in culture clash
Jackie Chan, Fan Bingbing and Johnny Knoxville teamed up for Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin’s buddy-cop film, which was let down by a robotic script, and bombed in the US upon release.
05 May, 2023
[26]
How 2012 shark movie Bait 3D became a monster hit at the Chinese box office
Bait 3D, an Australia-Singapore co-production, is a basic shark-attack film that flopped at the Australian box office but was a huge success in China, helped by its action, 3D shots and lack of politics.
02 Jun, 2023
[27]
How Disney got kicked out of China over Martin Scorsese’s movie Kundun
About the early life of the Dalai Lama, Martin Scorsese’s 1997 movie Kundun ripped a hole in US-China relations that took years to repair and saw Disney’s business in China stop overnight.
07 Jul, 2023
[28]
‘You can hide in Hong Kong’: how city made Chris Evans movie Push feel real
Superhero movie Push, starring Chris Evans, harnesses Hong Kong’s unique energy to make the film feel more real than the fantastical Marvel films in which the actor would go on to play Captain America.
04 Aug, 2023
[29]
Why Chris Hemsworth wasn’t enough to save Hong Kong-set 2015 movie Blackhat
Michael Mann’s 2015 film Blackhat – which combines hacking, Chris Hemsworth and Hong Kong to disappointing effect – has plenty of expertly filmed action set pieces, but little else to offer.
01 Sep, 2023
[30]
‘Unbelievable’: how Roland Emmerich’s 2012 broke Chinese box-office records
Starring John Cusack, Roland Emmerich’s disaster movie ‘2012’ broke box-office records in China after its release in 2009. But why? It’s hardly a flattering ‘love letter’ to China, as some at the time thought.
06 Oct, 2023
[31]
How Johnny English Reborn sent Sino-British relations back to 1997
Rowan Atkinson plays British spy Johnny English, who travels to Hong Kong to prevent an attack on a Chinese premier, in a film meant to court Chinese audiences but which was packed with stereotypes.
03 Nov, 2023
[32]
Why Jackie Chan ‘didn’t like’ Rush Hour 2, and why he was justified
2001’s Rush Hour 2, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, was a major box office success. Chan hated the film – although not for its crude stereotypes and overt sexism.
01 Dec, 2023
[33]
How Jackie Chan opened ‘golden door’ to Hollywood with Rumble in the Bronx
Jackie Chan may be a household name today, but it took 15 years of trying and 1995’s Rumble in the Bronx for the Hong Kong martial artist to win over international audiences and become a Hollywood star.
05 Jan, 2024
[34]
Why Jet Li’s Danny the dog role in Unleashed didn’t help him crack Hollywood
Jet Li received praise for his role as Danny the dog in Luc Besson’s gritty 2005 action movie. While he shone among co-stars such as Morgan Freeman, it didn’t help the martial arts actor crack Hollywood.
12 Feb, 2024
[35]
How Bloodsport, a Donald Trump fave, propelled Jean-Claude Van Damme to fame
Bloodsport is not a great movie but it always entertains. The Hong Kong-set action drama is best known for propelling Belgian martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme into the Hollywood big league.
09 Mar, 2024
[36]
Why did the first Hollywood film with a mostly Asian cast flop?
Flower Drum Song (1961), the first Hollywood film with a mostly Asian cast, was a rare box-office dud for Rodgers and Hammerstein. Was it a coincidence? We look back at the groundbreaking musical.
15 Apr, 2024
[37]
How Hollywood made a mockery of manga in Dragonball Evolution
In 2009, Dragonball Evolution adapted Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball for the big screen, but the result was a low-budget, laughably bad movie that sidelined Asians and debased the iconic manga series.
11 May, 2024
[38]
How racism taints New York triad thriller Year of the Dragon
Michael Cimino’s New York-set triad thriller Year of the Dragon, with Mickey Rourke and John Lone, wasted the chance to thoughtfully explore the American melting pot and instead went the racist route.
08 Jun, 2024
[39]
How British director’s Shanghai-set sci-fi Code 46 evokes Wong Kar-wai
Starring Samantha Morton and Tim Robbins as forbidden lovers in a story with echoes of 1984 and Blade Runner, Code 46 was shot largely in Shanghai and Dubai, the real locations lending it authenticity.
12 Jul, 2024
[40]
Why Ferry to Hong Kong was ‘nightmare film’ for its director
Casablanca meets The World of Suzie Wong in the 1959 movie Ferry to Hong Kong, whose cast – specifically stars Curt Jürgens and Orson Welles – nearly sank it for James Bond director Lewis Gilbert.
09 Aug, 2024
[41]
How Chinese-American comedy 21 & Over became 2 problematic films
21 & Over, the 2013 comedy from The Hangover writers, raised eyebrows with its racism and sexual objectification. Extra scenes shot for a Chinese cut made it a quite different film but not a better one.
06 Sep, 2024
[42]
How movie Soldier of Fortune was an exposé of Hong Kong expat life
Released in 1955 and starring Clark Gable and Susan Hayward, Soldier of Fortune came into its own as an exposé of expat life in Hong Kong.
04 Oct, 2024
[43]
Why Jackie Chan hated making Hong Kong-US movie The Protector
Chan was so unhappy with his role as a cold-blooded killer in the James Glickenhaus-directed film he asked for a new version for Hong Kong.
01 Nov, 2024
[44]
Why US sci-fi film Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp, fell flat in China
Despite a cast that included Depp, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy and Rebecca Hall, sci-fi film pitched at China tanked at the box office.
29 Nov, 2024
[45]
How Chinese film fans embraced Cloud Atlas, movie spurned elsewhere
The Wachowkis and Tom Tykwer’s adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel was a box-office flop everywhere except China, despite a starry cast.
27 Dec, 2024
[46]
Why Hong Kong-set Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing is plain offensive
It won three Oscars but the clunky 1955 movie casts Caucasians as Eurasians, features yellowface and had two leads who hated each other.
24 Jan, 2025
[47]
How Johnnie To’s action thriller Vengeance hit all the right targets
Starring Johnny Hallyday, Anthony Wong, Lam Ka-tung and Lam Suet, the 2009 Hong Kong-France co-production brought the best out of both sides.
21 Feb, 2025
[48]
John Rabe, film with a Western angle on the Nanking massacre
The film tells the story of the Japanese massacre of Chinese civilians through the eyes of ‘good’ Nazi John Rabe.
21 Mar, 2025
[49]
How Australian-Chinese movie Guardians of the Tomb reached new lows
This 2018 co-production starring Li Bingbing about deadly spiders in China was poorly made and scripted, earning well below its budget.
18 Apr, 2025
[50]
How disaster struck for Air Strike, a Chinese film with Bruce Willis
Rated 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, 2018 film Air Strike with Bruce Willis, Liu Ye and Fan Wei is a mishmash of genres and underwhelming action.
16 May, 2025
[51]
Poetic vision of Hong Kong in critically panned I Come with the Rain
Radiohead songs, visual poetry and Shawn Yue and Josh Hartnett in Vietnamese-French director’s art-house thriller shot mostly in Hong Kong.
13 Jun, 2025
[52]
How Chinese Box presented the Hong Kong handover from a unique viewpoint
In Wayne Wang’s 1997 drama, the many sides of a city on the brink of change were shown through the camcorder of Jeremy Irons’ English writer.
11 Jul, 2025
[53]
How Wong Kar-wai’s The Hand made the 2004 anthology Eros worth watching
The Hong Kong director’s segment from the three-part erotic anthology Eros outshone those by Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni.
08 Aug, 2025
[54]
Why Jet Li’s action thriller Kiss of the Dragon was banned in China
Kiss of the Dragon was a box office success in 2001, but its racial stereotyping, violence and sexual frankness caused it problems in China.
05 Sep, 2025
[55]
The story of Ping Pong, pioneering first film shot in London’s Chinatown
Also the first UK film made by a director of Chinese descent, Leong Po-chih’s Ping Pong flopped upon release but is being rediscovered.
03 Oct, 2025
[56]
The story of A Great Wall – the first American film shot in China
Peter Wang’s 1986 comedy-drama A Great Wall, which was filmed in San Francisco and Beijing, was better received in the US than in China.
31 Oct, 2025
[57]
British film about Hong Kong immigrants showed grim reality of their new lives
Soursweet (1988), about a Hong Kong family’s UK struggles, was a progressive film, despite the narrative controlled by its British makers.
28 Nov, 2025
[58]
How The Joy Luck Club opened the door for majority-Asian casts in Hollywood
The Joy Luck Club (1993) is a complex tale of intergenerational trauma focusing on four Chinese mothers and their daughters in San Francisco.
26 Dec, 2025
[59]
How Anna May Wong fought stereotypes in 1937 film Daughter of Shanghai
Anna May Wong’s role in Daughter of Shanghai was one of the Chinese-American actress’ favourites. We look at why this B-movie stands out.
23 Jan, 2026
[60]
Why Saving Face is the most important Asian-American lesbian film ever made
Alice Wu fought to film Saving Grace with an all Asian-American cast, and the film inspired a generation of Asian-American filmmakers.
20 Feb, 2026
[61]
How the eye-catchingly sexist DOA: Dead or Alive survived chaotic China shoot
Filmed at Hengdian World Studios, DOA: Dead or Alive helped pioneer East-West cinema collaboration – even if it bombed at the box office.
20 Mar, 2026
[62]
How M. Butterfly subverted Western fantasies of Chinese femininity
David Cronenberg’s 1993 movie starring John Lone as a cross-dresser who woos Jeremy Irons’ diplomat was an interesting but failed experiment.
17 Apr, 2026
[63]
How Hollywood turned China’s Boxer rebellion into a racist Western
55 Days at Peking (1963) paints the historical event as an Orientalist Alamo, while white actors ‘yellowface’ as the main Chinese characters.
15 May, 2026
[64]
When RZA cut his teeth as a kung fu director in The Man with the Iron Fists
The Wu-Tang Clan leader’s directorial debut with Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu was an ambitious ode to the martial arts films he grew up loving.
12 Jun, 2026
Advertisement
Advertisement
[65]
Why flop movie Shatter is a perfect 1970s Hong Kong time capsule
Shatter, featuring Peter Cushing, Lily Li and Ti Lung, was a box office failure in 1974, but offered a glimpse of a Hong Kong in transition.
10 Jul, 2026
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x