Great expectations for Jiang Wen(2)

It has been four years since his last performance and direction of Let the Bullets Fly, a bandit-theme comedy and action film, which earned wide praise and about 700 million yuan ($114 million) from box office.

A glimpse of the trailer easily reminds people of Let the Bullets Fly, and their English titles also seem to compose a series.

"If I tell you the new film is not a sequel of the previous one, you may call me a liar after watching it," the director says. "They both have Ge You. They both have guns. They both have trains.

"However, if I give an affirmative answer, that is not accurate either. It's an independent story."

With a 150-million-yuan-plus budget, more than 20 cameras, eight production companies, an all-Broadway dancing troupe and probably the best production team a director can get in China, box-office expectations are enormous.

Jiang smiles when a reporter asks whether the ticket take will surpass 2 billion yuan.

"No matter how high it will be, I will not think it's high enough," as Transformers: Age of Extinction took in a stunning 1.97-billion yuan ticket sales on the Chinese mainland and became the country's biggest-grossing film in history this summer.

Jiang's new installment may not compete with Transformers in genre, but it could have similar visual impact. He became the first Chinese director to use IMAX 3-D digital cameras rather than converting films shot in regular camera into three-dimensional formats.

"It's unfair to call me technology-savvy," he says, declining to be compared with the few directors in the United States who have used this technology, like James Cameron.

"But, production of film always follows development of technology. I found myself nauseated when watching a 3-D film for the first time, but I later found that it's because the technology was not good enough."

Ye Ning, head of Wanda Media and co-producer of the film, says: "The film will not only set a new box-office record, but it will also usher in a new era. It represents the future trend of Chinese movies. If our productions want to be more influential in the world, we must bring more super blockbusters of high quality."

Do Jiang's ambitions include next year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film? He is both tactful and confident.

"It's the country's film authorities' job to make the decision whether to recommend my film to compete for the Oscar," he says.

"What I can decide is whether go there or not (if it is recommended).

"Anyway, I will recommend this film to the authorities," he continues after a few seconds' pause. "If I don't go there, who will?"