The revered Fifth Generation auteur hasn’t had a sizable international hit since House of Flying Daggers in 2004. Victim Zhang Yimou?Īnd yet the real victim if The Great Wall ultimately underperforms, the one film lovers should care about, is its Chinese director, Zhang Yimou. There is, in other words, much riding on the performance of The Great Wall, as a web of corporations, production companies, movie theater chains, and financiers in both countries sweat out critical reaction and box office results.

Hollywood is willing to help if it ultimately leads to the release of more of its films in the tightly controlled Chinese market, currently the second largest in the world.

In this divisive age, when countries are turning inward with a nationalist, xenophobic fervor, it’s comforting to know that the United States and China, their relationship mercurial and wary, can work together and, in the spirit of cooperation and unity, make a terrible movie.Ī co-production between Legendary East (the Chinese arm of Burbank, California-based, Legendary Entertainment) and China Film Group, The Great Wall is reportedly the most expensive film ever shot in China, a nation with aspirations to make films that rival Hollywood in their scope and success.

The great wall movie