Though set in the Warring States era, a period in Chinese history marked by vicious factionalism, A Battle of Wits (ABW) is all about friendly ties. Indeed, this project, designed as yet another vehicle for Andy Lau and Fan Bingbing, might just herald a new age of Asian film co-production.

At a recent producers’ workshop, titled “Border-crossing Co-productions”, organized by the First Annual Asian Film Market and held in Pusan, the film was hailed as a model of Asian co-production. No small feat considering the diversity of the production team: Chinese mainland’s Huayi Brothers, Korea’s Boram Productions, Hong Kong’s Sundream Motion Pictures and Japan’s Hark & Co. Kwan Jae-Hyun, the workshop’s coordinator, said ABW served as a test case for regional cooperation and passed with flying colors.

From its source material to its production methods, the film is 100 per cent made in Asia. Based on the Japanese comic book Mak Gong, which was, in turn, inspired by an ancient Chinese story, ABW tells the story of a war strategist employed by a small state to protect it from imminent invasion.

Director Jacob Cheung Chi-leung took six years to bring the USD 16 million production to the screen, taking his time to assemble a talented team of actors from across Asia, including Lau and Fang, Shanghai-born Wang Zhiwen, Korean Ahn Sung-ki and Taiwanese heartthrob Nicky Wu.

Six years may seem excessive, but the result, at least in business terms, should be of great benefit to regional filmmaking. “Before shooting, each investor would calculate the profit versus the cost in their respective territory and invest accordingly,” explained Sundream Motion Pictures producer Tsui Siu-ming.

That said, the hottest topic at the workshop wasn’t profit, but rather the importance of establishing “mutual trust” among partners in the long term. And some of the key players – Iseki Satoru (Hark & Co.), Lee Joo-ik (Boram Productions) and James Wang (Huayi Brothers) – have made efforts to do so before, for example on Chen Kaige’s The Emperor and the Assassin (1998).

But with ABW, all parties have taken a giant step forward.

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
December 2006 issue