And as usual there are financial considerations. "Because we have six products, we can get a cheaper deal for production expenses. This makes it easier to get investment from overseas," she said. "If you say you have a package of six movies about the changes in Chinese societies, it's more appealing to foreign investors," Chiao said.
"Tales of Three Cities" received funds from French distributor Flach Pyramide International in the pre-production phase, and after its success in Berlin, its US distribution was bought by Sony Classics. And according to Chiao, five Japanese distributors and two Hong Kong companies intended to cover the project's Asian market.
Arc Light Films is also one of the few Taiwanese companies to recruit directors from China, with Wang Xiaoshuai for Beijing Bicycle and Jia Zhangke for Shanghai Babe.
Beijing Bicycle was entirely produced in Taiwan and most of the post-production credits go to Taiwanese, but Chiao says the participation of a director from China has made the film a political hot potato. "It's a pity our government is still reluctant to recognize the effort and achievement of Arc Light Films," Chiao said. "It's absurd! Joint ventures are the trend in international filmmaking. And whether you like the word globalization or not, you will see a European film with investment by different nations so that you cannot tell the nationality of the film," Chiao added.
For Chiao, culture precedes politics, and she says the future of film investment will require a broader mind and vision. "In the future, it will be impossible to have a pure-blooded Taiwanese film. You will have a director from Taiwan, stars from Hong Kong or Japan, studio shots in Beijing ..." she said. "You will have to go even beyond Chinese-language films and integrate resources from around the Asian region."
With the synthesis of international funding and talent, she says, Chinese-language films just may be able to compete with the Hollywood monolith.
A week after returning from Berlin, Chiao said she can finally repay her million US dollar debt and start on the next project. And having said that, Chiao rushed off to meet with a Korean film distributor.
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