If Ang Lee were making The Wedding Banquet now, he would have no problem getting the actress for the female lead. The role, a young woman from Shanghai, was written with Joan Chen, a Shanghai native and a prominent actress of the mainland, in mind. But since mainland talent was not allowed in a Taiwan-financed production back in the early 1990s, Lee had to go for a Taiwan actress instead.
That kind of meddling by politics in art may never happen again. A mainland-Taiwan co-produced film will likely be allowed to have a mainland cast of up to one-third by the end of July, compared with the quota of just two mainland actors allowed in such a production now, a Taiwan official says.
Taiwan's "Mainland Affairs Council" has approved the proposal, says Frank J.K.Chen, director of the department of motion pictures affairs, Taiwan's "Information Office".
"We are awaiting a response from authorities, which is expected at the end of July," Chen says in an exclusive interview with China Daily.
The small step may mean a giant leap for cross-Straits cooperation in the film business.
Although they share Chinese culture, there has been little cooperation between the two sides in terms of film production since 1949.
However, warmer political relations, the remarkable growth of the mainland film market and the declining Taiwan film industry has created a golden opportunity for cross-Straits film co-production.
The mainland and Taiwan launched daily direct passenger flights, shipping routes and postal services on Dec 15, 2008, after the island's leader, Ma Ying-jeou, took office in May, 2008.
"I took the morning flight from Taiwan last Wednesday and arrived in Beijing after three hours. I have been to the mainland more than 50 times, and this is the quickest trip," says Taiwan director Li Hsing, 79, at the opening ceremony of the inaugural Cross-Strait Film Exhibition, last Friday, in Beijing.
Li, long devoted to cultural exchanges between the two sides' filmmakers, led a delegation of about 20 Taiwan officials, filmmakers and actors, to attend the event.
The week-long exhibition, which runs until Friday, will screen six Taiwan films, mostly recent works by young talents, in Beijing and Tianjin, following seven mainland film screenings in Taiwan earlier in June.
At the same time, Fan Liqing, spokeswoman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told a press conference on June 24 that: "We would like to work together with Taiwan filmmakers to strengthen exchanges and enlarge cooperation."
"The timing for both sides' filmmakers to join hands is very good now," says Chen Shan, professor of Beijing Film Academy. "The realization of the three direct links and warmer political climate undoubtedly makes communications more convenient."
The increasingly sophisticated and vast mainland market is another factor.
Taiwan released only 36 films last year, grossing $9.3 million at the box office, while 382 films from overseas shown locally generated revenue of $67 million, according to Reuters.
In the same year, the mainland created 406 feature films. The box office revenue increased 30 percent to 4.34 billion yuan ($638 million) over 2007. There has been continuous annual growth of 25 percent since 2002.
Peggy Chiao, an established Taiwan film producer and scholar, does not hide her concerns about the island's film business.
"The revenue for local films has for many years remained at 1 percent to 2 percent of the total gross box office," she says. "The prevalence of Hollywood films in an open market, as well as the art house films that turn off viewers, have both played a role in the decline of our film business."
Taiwan used to produce about 200 films annually in its heyday, but now the number has dramatically decreased, confirms senior director Hou Hsiao-hsien.
Hou, Tsai Ming-liang and Edward Yang, were frequent winners of top international film festivals in the early and middle 1990s, but their art house films and those of their followers have lost market share to Hollywood productions since the late 1990s.
While Taiwan has a quota of 10 mainland films released per year, Taiwan productions have to be "specially approved by authorities," says Frank Chen. But, according to Zhang Xun, general manager of China Film Co-Production Corporation, co-productions between the mainland and Taiwan are not bound by the regulation and are screened as local productions. They are not included in the annual quota of 20 foreign films a year that are released here.
Therefore, co-production is a good way around the difficulties of distribution, and Hong Kong is a notable precedent.
Since the 2003 signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), the Hong Kong film business has benefited from the mainland's big audience, varied locations and rich talent.
Many Hong Kong directors such as Tsui Hark and Peter Chan have set up studios in Beijing and shifted their focus to co-productions.
"In Beijing, we are used to talking about what films a company has shot this year, but will not emphasize whether they are mainland, Hong Kong or Taiwan productions," said mainland director Feng Xiaogang when he was in Taiwan last month, promoting his romantic comedy If You are the One.
There are still problems, however, Chiao says.
"The mainland and Hong Kong co-productions suffer from the monotony of blockbusters featuring the combination of an ancient story from the mainland and lavish production design, action choreography and a stellar cast from Hong Kong," she says.
"Taiwan cinema, which has the tradition of a strong concern for humanity, may inspire something different. The best outcome would be culture from the three sides leading to a creative clash that makes really good Chinese films."
How to cater to the taste of both sides' audiences, after the two sides' decades-long separation, is also a big challenge, Chiao adds.
"For a long time, the two sides had little way of knowing each other's films," says Chiao, who also teaches at Taiwan University of the Arts. "Some of my students still consider mainland films as propaganda and to many mainland viewers their impressions of Taiwan film is just romantic tragedies or art house."
She is now producing a mainland-Hong Kong-Taiwan production called Silver Empire, which will hit the big screens in the mainland on July 30.
"The story is set in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), a remote period for today's Taiwan audience, and most actors are from the mainland," she says. "I am a bit worried if the audience in Taiwan will accept the story and the acting style. We need time to know each other better, and the best way forward is through continuous cooperation."
Frank Chen, however, thinks a clear policy is the most important factor. "We know we need the screenplay to be approved by the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) to start a co-production," he says. "We respect the policy, but I think a rating system instead would be fairer to both filmmakers and audience, so that we are clear what we can do and for whom we are making the film."
"The absence of a stable and clear policy will hamper cooperation and creativity," agrees Hou.
The delegation talked with SARFT on Monday, but details have not been revealed, as of press time.
