And as usual there are financial considerations. Because we have six products, we can get a cheaper deal for production expenses. And according to Chiao, five Japanese distributors and two Hong Kong companies intended to cover the project's Asian market. Arc Light Films is also one of the few Taiwanese companies to recruit directors from China, with Wang Xiaoshuai for Beijing Bicycle and Jia Zhangke for Shanghai Babe . Beijing Bicycle was entirely produced in Taiwan and most of the post-production credits go to Taiwanese, but Chiao says the participation of a director from China has made the film a political hot potato.
Joint ventures are the trend in international filmmaking.
For Chiao, culture precedes politics, and she says the future of film investment will require a broader mind and vision. In the future, it will be impossible to have a pure-blooded Taiwanese film. You will have to go even beyond Chinese-language films and integrate resources from around the Asian region. With the synthesis of international funding and talent, she says, Chinese-language films just may be able to compete with the Hollywood monolith. A week after returning from Berlin, Chiao said she can finally repay her million US dollar debt and start on the next project.