Art-house flick shines bright in the shadows

"Making a film is like falling in love with someone. You need impulse and persistence. I hope China's young filmmakers will not be scared off by today's situation (the dominance of the Marvel release in the movie market). If you have the courage and focus to create quality work, I believe art-house films can earn a bigger slice of the market," he adds.

Wong is also the executive producer of Jinpa. He recalls that his crew had wanted to shoot a film about the Tibet autonomous region.

"We needed to recruit a Tibetan director to give the movie an authentic local flavor. I have seen many of Tseden's films and really love his work. The films are very personal and always told in a calm tone," recalls Wong.

As Tseden conceived of the script of Jinpa nearly two decades ago, Jet Tone set their own ideas aside and switched to financing Tseden's story, which was adapted from the combination of The Slayer, a novel penned by Tibetan writer Tsering Norbu, and Tseden's own story, I Ran Over a Sheep.

Through their cooperation, Wong says he has come to understand more about Tibet, its people and their unique lifestyle.

"Tibet is no longer remote to us," he says, adding that the film showed him how Tibetans respect life and nature.

Despite Jinpa being met with online critical acclaim and achieving 7.5 points out of 10 on review site Douban, the film has still struggled to reach just 1.5 percent of the country's screens by Monday. With its opening day box-office takings reaching just 1.33 million yuan, the number of screenings is likely to fall in the coming days.

"China has more than 60,000 screens-seemingly enough to release many different kinds of films. But unfortunately, it seems this still remains a distant dream for us now," says Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Association.

xufan@chinadaily.com.cn