Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Chow Yun-Fat thinks it is very probable that more films will be shot on the Chinese mainland. He said in a recent interview, "China is a great country with many impressive landscapes that make for perfect film sets."

 

Having finished filming his role in the high-profile Curse of the Golden Flower, by famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou, 51-year-old Chow is now diligently preparing for John Woo's historical epic The Battle of Red Cliff that will start shooting in February, 2007. The movie is based on the story of a crucial battle between three kingdoms that took place in 208 AD during the Three Kingdoms Period in Chinese history. Chow will play Liu Bei, the king of the Shu Kingdom. To prepare for this role, Chow has lost weight and done a lot of horseback riding.

 

Since his Hollywood debut in The Replacement Killers in 1998, Chow has made himself a familiar Asian face on the other side of the ocean with Anna and the King (1999) and the academy award winner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). After that, he starred in a number of films back in China. Regarding his recent "return" to Chinese movies, Chow says: "It is the story that matters, not the language."

 

His high reviews of the outstanding natural environment of the Chinese mainland for filmmaking indicate that more and more movies will be shot in China.

 

(CRI September 25, 2006)