- HONG KONG: "Farewell My Concubine" director Chen Kaige says he follows his heart - and not box office predictions - when he chooses his projects, rebuffing criticism that he and his contemporaries have compromised their artistic integrity in exchange for commercial success.
Chen told the Associated Press on the sidelines of the Hong Kong International Film Festival late Tuesday: "If you asked me to choose between making a good movie and making a box office hit, I will choose to make a good movie."
Chen and fellow director Zhang Yimou are part of China's famed "fifth generation" of directors - the first generation of Chinese filmmakers to gain attention in the West. But both have experimented with big-budget blockbusters in recent years, to the chagrin of cinema purists.
