One individual who is already well established in the Chinese movie industry is Leon Lai. The multi-award winning actor and singer was happy to play second fiddle to martial artist Donnie Yen in his latest film. Lai said that the most important thing is to get the chance to be a part of it rather than play the biggest role in the movie.

The new year season is always marked by hectic competition among established directors intent on refreshing their reputations, and newcomers eager to carve out a niche.

And 2009 is no exception. This winter, Chinese film-goers will have plenty of choices as close to 40 offerings are hitting the cinemas, including Zhao Wei's "Mulan", a classical comic-adaptation called "Storm Riders Two" and pop king Jay Chou's "The Treasure Hunter", just to name a few. Zhang Yimou has already shown off his new year movie, "A Simple Noodle Story," his version of "Blood Simple." The film raked in more than 100 million yuan in just four days, a new box office record for the country.

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