Bringing lives of 20 Chinese cultural masters to big screen

A screenshot of Hua Sheng. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhongshi Cultural Company announced at a press conference on March 9 that they will be producing a series of 20 films about Chinese cultural masters in the next five years.

The masters will include painter Wu Daozi, poet Li Bai, tea expert Lu Yv from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), calligrapher Wang Xizhi from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), Doctor Zhang Zhongjing from the Eastern Han Dyansty (25-220).

The film about Wu Daozi, Hua Sheng, was completed in 2012.

Hong Kong film star Wu Ma, who passed away in 2014, played the role of painter Wu Daozi in Hua Sheng. Bamboos, fine rain and small cottages in the pictures convey a simple and clean Chinese aesthetic appreciation.

However, without enough market promotion, it did not receive widespread acclaim and only got 6.4 points out of 10 on Douban, one of China's most popular movie review sites.

The latest production about Wang Xizhi will start filming soon. A famous calligrapher, Tian Boping will play Wang in the film.

Yang Huanqin, general producer of the series, expressed her determination to finish filming on time.

"The films will be a huge cultural project. We have faith in our work. There will be some obstacles ahead of us, so we need support from many institutions," she said.

About 10 modern painters and art scholars attended the conference and praised the plan that will present traditional Chinese culture and the legends of these masters.