Interview: Chinese-American actor sees great opportunity for Chinese filmmakers

Chinese-American singer and actor Kris Phillips speaks at a panel discussion themed on "Genre Trends in Global Film Production" during the 80th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sept. 3, 2023. (Xinhua/Jin Mamengni)

VENICE, Italy, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- There is a great opportunity for Chinese filmmakers to present unique and fresh stories to audiences worldwide as people crave new ideas and directions in films, Chinese-American singer and actor Kris Phillips has said.

Phillips, better known in China by his Chinese name Fei Xiang, shared his thoughts about cinema in an exclusive interview with Xinhua in Venice, Italy.

"Hollywood, which has dominated the entire world's film industry for decades, seems to be doing a lot of remakes of the same films over and over," especially in recent years, he said. "I think they're having difficulty trying to find new stories and new directions."

Citing the Oscar-winning South Korean film "Parasite" as an example, Phillips said the reason behind the black comedy's runaway success would be the audiences' "great curiosity in stories we have not seen before, and in people's experiences and human lives that we haven't seen before in cinema."

At the ongoing 80th Venice International Film Festival, he showed up on behalf of the Chinese mythological epic trilogy "Creation of the Gods," the first segment of which is screening in China this summer. The film has already become a blockbuster and garnered more than 2.5 billion yuan (342.28 million U.S. dollars) at the box office.

"I am very proud and happy to present it to worldwide audiences because it presents a historical fantasy epic vision of the Shang Dynasty that nobody has seen before," he told Xinhua.

The trilogy is based on the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel "Fengshen Yanyi" or "The Investiture of the Gods," which tells the story of the fall of the Shang Dynasty and the rise of the Zhou Dynasty in the 11th century B.C. and the battles between gods, goddesses and mortals.

Phillips, who has enraptured audiences in China with his charm, starred as King Zhou, the last ruler of the Shang Dynasty.

The kaleidoscopic subjects of Chinese literature with myriads of stories and characters offer audiences a fresh experience, he said. "Creation of the Gods is a traditional, epic-style film -- the way 'Lord of the Rings' was. But that kind of epic production scale is something that isn't seen as often these days. I think there's certainly a great hunger for big production movies."

Directed by Wuershan, "Creation of the Gods" combines ancient mythology with Chinese traditional arts and special effects. Audiences will see battle sequences in a grander style and at the same time enjoy the Chinese aesthetic aspect of the fantasy. "I think for worldwide audiences in particular it will be a huge surprise," Phillips said.

He said there was also plenty of room for smaller and lower-budget films that depict Chinese people's contemporary lives. Viewers worldwide can relate to these modern stories as long as the films portray common themes of life well.

"If those common themes are well displayed -- themes of family, themes of love, themes of responsibility, of fear, of what makes us human -- you can expect huge success. I do think that there is a lot of opportunity for Chinese film now because Chinese stories are fresh.

"It's like a huge, unexplored, vast territory that is just waiting for filmmakers to go and dig out those great stories. I'm very optimistic about this moment in Chinese cinema," he said.

Chinese-American singer and actor Kris Phillips attends a panel discussion themed on "Genre Trends in Global Film Production" during the 80th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sept. 3, 2023. (Xinhua/Jin Mamengni)

Chinese-American singer and actor Kris Phillips speaks at a panel discussion themed on "Genre Trends in Global Film Production" during the 80th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sept. 3, 2023. (Xinhua/Jin Mamengni)

Chinese-American singer and actor Kris Phillips (3rd R) attends a panel discussion themed on "Genre Trends in Global Film Production" during the 80th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sept. 3, 2023. (Xinhua/Jin Mamengni)