Shanghai's star turn as Hollywood of the East

Alexia Kalteis performs in the musical Rock On! Halloween at a popular theater in Shanghai. Photo provided to China Daily

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Hong Kong became synonymous with bloody police-gangster flicks and martial arts movies in the late 1980s thanks to directors like John Woo and stars such as Chow Yun-fat. For decades, the territory's motion picture industry was only bested in size by Hollywood and Bollywood. Then South Korea crept in and stole the show with ultra-violent hits like director Park Chan-wook's Vengeance trilogy (the second installment, Old Boy, reached theaters in 2003).

One of the biggest releases from South Korea in recent years seems to point the way forward: Na Hong-jin made the male leads of his excellent thriller Yellow Sea two ethnic-Korean Chinese from Yanbian, Jilin province. Having rival gangsters from both countries engage in a long bloodbath was guaranteed to draw an international audience.

Lazetich, meanwhile, is keen not to put all of his eggs in one basket. He says he has found a niche with Wise Hit, the web series he both stars in and directs. The spoof Western set in a modern Asian city has met with enviable success on KoldCast.tv and Blip, another online platform for original web series.

Given the explosive growth of Chinese cinema, it is little surprise that local productions are creating more speaking roles for expats, with the caveat that they often have to say their lines in Chinese.

"I like the fact that most of the roles I've been playing recently are the good-guy roles, not the stereotypical 'bad foreigner' that seems to be all too prevalent in Chinese productions," says Karl Dominik, who owns Constellation talent agency in Shanghai.

"I am daunted by the amount of Chinese I have to learn, but I love a challenge."

Another of Shanghai's top foreign acting talents, Englishman Charles Mayer, had a high-profile supporting role in Yip Man 2 (2010) as a corrupt police sergeant in wartime Hong Kong. It was exactly the kind of racially charged role people like Dominik are eager to avoid.

"Things are changing, which is great, because there are some real acting heavyweights here like Arran Hawkins, Christy Shapiro and Jim Bennett," says Kalteis, reeling off a list of well-known names among Shanghai's theater community.

"The Chinese used to treasure looks way above acting skill. If you weren't model-skinny they weren't interested, but now they appreciate real talent," she adds.

Others say Beijing offers greener pastures than China's glamorous commercial hub.

Richard Trombley, a Beijing-based independent filmmaker, left Shanghai several years ago to forge closer ties with industry figures. He says he is now seeing his efforts bear fruit.

"All the big deals these days are done in Beijing. It's still a bit more government-run than in Shanghai, but the industry is also more developed and professional here," he says.

"It's still very challenging for anyone to initiate a project here, but there are plenty of ways to get involved if you have some talent, for example as a director of photography or screenwriter."

"Commercials, corporate videos and indie films are really the way to get your foot in the door," he adds.