To celebrate this year's 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a stellar cast of China's top filmmakers and actors are making a film temporarily named Founding a Country. The film stars many household names--Andy Lau, Jiang Wen, Ge You, Vivian Wu, and prestigious directors Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang--who all make appearances. Han Sanping is behind the camera.

RETURN OF THE KING: Shanghai Grand Cinema reopens on January 20 after a year of remodeling (PEI XIN)

As chairman of China Film Group Corp., Han insists only commercialization can promote China's films. In 2008, China Film Group Corp. movies took over 50 percent of the country's film market. Han was elected as one of China Economic Leaders of the Year 2008, an honor organized by China Central Television.

According to State Administration of Radio, Film and Television data, Chinese box offices made 4.215 billion yuan ($617.13 million) in 2008, up 888 million yuan ($130.01 million) from 2007's returns. These numbers put China in the top 10 of global film markets for the first time. Chinese films brought in 2.563 billion yuan ($375.26 million), taking over 60 percent of the total domestic market.

"Maybe it's a good chance for China's film industry to further develop," said Han.

Selling out or selling big?

"I have experienced the development of Chinese films over the last 30 years," said Han, whose career has been intertwined in a tumultuous period for domestically produced films. Two years after he entered the movie business in 1977, film audiences in China reached a historic peak of 29.3 billion person-time.

TWO GOOD MEN: Jiang Wen (left) and Ge You, two of China's prestigious actors, have a conversation (YANG FEI)

But ticket sales soon began to fall sharply. By the late 1980s, China's film industry began to seriously shrink. The number of Chinese films decreased by over 50 percent in 1993 and the audience shrank to less than a third of the peak number.

In 1994, Han was inaugurated as director of the Beijing Film Studio. The China Film Group Corp. was established in May 1999 and he was made vice chairman and vice manager. In that post, Han made a series of reforms to the corporation and led it into a new stage. Today, China Film Group Corp. has become the largest production base for Chinese films.

"Today's film industry is still in a dangerous situation," said Han. "If we don't speed up our development pace, local films will be kicked out of the market."

For a long time, Chinese filmmakers like international award winner Zhang Yimou enjoyed a carefree life in the bosom of the state-owned film production system. Under such a structure, they could make films in their own ways and not worry about the box office. They did not have to concern themselves with the market.

It soon became apparent that they would not be able to compete globally without considering the market. Audiences watched Hollywood films and compact discs took over the Chinese film market.

In recent years, concerned government agencies realized they needed to become aggressive in their marketing operations and reform the Chinese film system. Now state-owned film production studios are not the only film-making and distributing operations in the country, with many independent companies entering the marketplace. Filmmakers are now obliged to adapt to market realities.

In 2002, Zhang directed his commercial blast Hero. The film created a box office sensation in the Chinese mainland film market, earning over 100 million yuan ($14.64 million) in the first week and 243 million yuan ($35.58 million) in three months. In the following years, Zhang shot several more commercial films. "We should attach enough importance to the commercial films," said Zhang, even though he had endured many doubts from his audiences.

Today, more and more audience members accept commercial films. When Feng brought his "New Year's film" You Are the One into the cinema at the end of 2008, moviegoers flooded theaters and spent 310 million yuan ($45.39 million) at the box office.