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Matt Glasby

This is the latest instalment in a feature series reflecting on instances of East meets West in world cinema, including China-US co-productions.
In 1986, Leong Po-chih’s comedy-drama Ping Pong became the first British film ever made by a director of Chinese descent and the first shot in London’s Chinatown.
Not only is this a shameful commentary on the racial barriers of the industry, it also does a disservice to the film itself, which is something of a lost gem.
Leong is an interesting, if peripheral, figure in world cinema. Born in Northampton, England, to Chinese parents, he studied at the London Film School, then worked at the BBC before heading to Hong Kong to make films such as Hong Kong 1941 (1984) and become part of the Hong Kong New Wave movement.
But Ping Pong is a more personal proposition, weaving elements of his father’s life story into the tale of deceased Chinatown businessman Sam Wong (KC Leong), who leaves behind a complicated will.

Plucky British-Chinese lawyer Elaine Choi (Lucy Sheen) is tasked with executing it, even though she barely speaks Cantonese.
As Elaine gets to know the Wong family, trying to establish who will accompany Sam’s body back to China and what will become of his restaurant, the Citizen Kane-style structure allows Leong and writer Jerry Liu to explore different facets of the Chinese-British experience.
As the BFI’s George White noted, “The focus is on characters caught – ping-ponging – between a China that no longer exists and a Britain that doesn’t want them.”
Elaine is an orphan who came to the UK aged seven, hiding behind the sofa “whenever she saw an Englishman”.
“My homeland? Which one?” she asks when told to “go home”.
Meanwhile, Wong’s concern with his legacy sets the plot of the film in motion. In his will, he decrees that his restaurant remains authentically Chinese and is “not to be turned into a high-class tourist wonton establishment”. He also leaves his sports car to a mysterious Western woman, one Sarah Lee, providing another facet to the mystery.


Although most of Wong’s family cleave to the old ways, and his friend Mr Chen (Robert Lee) has never even left Chinatown, his son Mike (David Yip) is a different matter.
A yuppie restaurateur who drinks French wine and speaks Italian, he plans to turn his father’s business into a modern-style leisure complex to sell an idea of “Chinese-ness” to the British.
The play between the authentic and the fake is key to the film’s heady atmosphere. Elaine dreams of herself as a wuxia goddess standing atop a willow tree, ready to take on all comers.
It is notable that Leong and cinematographer Nicholas D. Knowland use real Chinatown locations – many shown on screen for the first time – to conjure a genuine sense of place.
An opening tracking shot moves from a Bruce Lee poster, along a graffitied wall, past the back doors of Chinese restaurants, where waiters slurp noodles and haul produce, to the phone box where Wong lies dead.

Not only is such visual dynamism impressive on a US$650,000 budget, it adds a sense of intrigue, like there is a clandestine world operating just beneath. Witness the scene, shot like a film noir, where Elaine descends into a smoky gambling den.
True, some of the performances suggest, as White puts it, an “unfamiliarity with the camera”, but even this lack of polish adds to the sense that we are seeing something new and not yet fully formed.
Also new, to Western viewers at least, is the sense that they might be the butt of the joke. It is very rare in British cinema – perhaps even unprecedented – to hear terms such as “gweilo” and “gwai mui” bandied about on screen, although racial slurs about Chinese people are depressingly common.
One amusing scene shows some obnoxious American tourists ordering roast duck, sweet and sour sauce, fried rice – all of the most obvious items on the menu – while a Chinese waiter smirks in the background.
Another has Elaine telling a snooty British official, who asks for milk and sugar with his green tea, “They sometimes find you a bit inscrutable.”

While this impish sense of humour goes a long way to excusing the film’s shortcomings, it may also explain why it failed to find an audience. After debuting at the 1986 Venice Film Festival, it made just £12,928 in British cinemas and US$67,421 in the United States.
Leong headed back to Hong Kong, most of the cast went into TV, and in the decades that followed, films by British-Chinese directors have been few and far between.
But in recent years, the film’s profile has risen, with a theatrical re-release in 2024 that caused critics to not so much reassess it as notice it for the first time. Perhaps that is the real price of being a pioneer.
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European cinema

What happened to 1986’s Ping Pong, pioneering first film shot in London’s Chinatown?

David Yip (left) and Lucy Sheen in a still from Ping Pong (1986), directed by Leong Po-chih and filmed in London’s Chinatown.

Victor Kan in a still from Ping Pong.

A still from Ping Pong.

Lucy Sheen (left) and David Yip in a still from Ping Pong.

Why Jet Li’s Kiss of the Dragon was banned in China despite being a global hit

Jet Li carries Bridget Fonda in a still from Kiss of the Dragon (2001), a popular film around the world that was banned in China. Photo: SCMP

Jet Li in a still from Kiss of the Dragon. Photo: SCMP

Li and filmmaker Luc Besson at a news conference for Kiss of the Dragon at the Island Shangri-la Hotel, in Hong Kong, in July 2001. Photo: SCMP

Li in a still from Kiss of the Dragon. Photo: SCMP

Li (left) in a still from Kiss of the Dragon. Photo: SCMP

How Wong Kar-wai’s short The Hand made the 2004 anthology film Eros worth watching

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Chang Chen (left) and Gong Li in a still from The Hand, Wong Kar-wai’s segment in the anthology film Eros (2004). Photo: SCMP

Chang Chen (left) and Gong Li in a still from The Hand. Photo: SCMP

Robert Downey Jnr (front) and Alan Arkin in a still from Steven Soderbergh’s Eros segment Equilibrium. Photo: SCMP

Christopher Buchholz and Luisa Ranieri in a still from Michelangelo Antonioni’s Eros segment The Dangerous Thread of Things. Photo: SCMP

How Wayne Wang’s Chinese Box presented the 1997 Hong Kong handover from a unique viewpoint

Jeremy Irons and Gong Li in a still from Chinese Box, Wayne Wang’s drama that offered a Westerner’s perspective on the 1997 Hong Kong handover from Britain to China.

Jeremy Irons and Maggie Cheung in a still from Chinese Box.

Michael Hui and Gong Li in a still from Chinese Box.

Michael Hui, Gong Li and Jeremy Irons in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, in 1997. Photo: Dickson Lee

Michael Hui, Jeremy Irons and Gong Li in a still from Chinese Box.

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Hong Kong actor Will Or in a still from A Foggy Tale, for which he is nominated for best leading actor at the 2025 Golden Horse Awards.

Jayden Cheung in a still from Queerpanorama. Photo: Good Sin Production

Janel Tsai and Nina Ye play mother and daughter in Left-Handed Girl.

A still from Another World.

Fan Bingbing in a still from Mother Bhumi.

Anthony Wong in a still from Finch & Midland.

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Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

East meets West

How giant shark movie The Meg, starring Li Bingbing and Jason Statham, became the highest grossing China-US co-production in history

Li Bingbing and Jason Statham in a scene from The Meg (2018).

Li Bingbing and Ruby Rose in a still from The Meg.

Rain Wilson and Winston Chow in a still from The Meg.

Li Bingbing (third, left) and Jason Statham (centre) lead an international cast in The Meg (2018). Despite negative reviews, the film made US$530 million worldwide to be the highest-grossing Chinese-American co-production of all time.

Zhang Yimou’s fantasy movie The Great Wall with Matt Damon – a great fail for the China-US co-production model

Matt Damon in a still from The Great Wall.

Director Zhang Yimou (centre) and his main cast members on the set of The Great Wall.

Andy Lau in a still from The Great Wall.

Matt Damon in a scene from The Great Wall. The most expensive film ever shot on Chinese soil, it lost US$75 million worldwide.

Keanu Reeves’ martial arts movie Man of Tai Chi marked a high point for China-US co-productions – yet bombed at the box office

Keanu Reeves in a still from Man of Tai Chi (2013).

Tiger Chen stars in Man of Tai Chi, a 2013 film directed by Keanu Reeves.

Tiger Chen (right) and Yu Hai in a still from Man of Tai Chi.

Keanu Reeves in a still from Man of Tai Chi.

How Chinese movie fans made Warcraft the most successful video game adaptation of all time

A still from Warcraft: The Beginning (2016).

A still from Warcraft: The Beginning (2016). Despite flopping badly in the US, the film made a massive US$156 million in its first five days on release in China.

Travis Fimmel (left) in a scene from Warcraft: The Beginning.

Fimmel (left) and director Duncan Jones on the set of Warcraft: The Beginning.

A still from Warcraft: The Beginning.

How 2012 time-travel thriller Looper rewrote the future of Chinese-American co-productions

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a still from Looper.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a scene from Looper. The movie was one of the first major Hollywood films to be granted Chinese co-production status.

Summer Qing (left) and Bruce Willis in a still from Looper.

Emily Blunt in a still from Looper.

Director Rian Johnson (left) speaks to Gordon-Levitt on the set of Looper.

US-China co-production Transformers: Age of Extinction, with its Hong Kong scenes and Chinese character, made more money in China than in the US

Mark Wahlberg in a still fromTransformers: Age of Extinction.  

Optimus Prime and a Dinobot in a still from Transformers: Age of Extinction. The fourth instalment in the Transformers series took more money at the Chinese box office than in the US.

 Mark Wahlberg at the world premiere of Transformers: Age of Extinction, at the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, in 2014. Photo: Felix Wong

Stanley Tucci and Li Bingbing in a still from Transformers: Age of Extinction.

A model of the Transformers character Bumblebee in front of Qianmen Gate in central Beijing in 2014. Photo: Jason Lee/Reuters

Why China – not Jackie Chan, nor even Jaden Smith – is the real star of 2010 co-production The Karate Kid

Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith in a still from The Karate Kid (2010).

Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, co-stars of The Karate Kid. The real star of the 2010 co-production is arguably China, where the film was shot in locations including the Forbidden City, Great Wall and Wudang mountains. Photo: AP

Jaden Smith in a still from The Karate Kid.

Jackie Chan as Mr. Han and Jaden Smith as Dre Parker in a still from The Karate Kid.

How Marvel’s Iron Man 3 tried but failed to please Chinese viewers, from Fan Bingbing’s pointless cameo to brazen product placement

Robert Downey Jr. in a still from Marvel’s Iron Man 3 (2013). A special cut of the movie made for Chinese audiences included four minutes of extra footage. 

Ben Kingsley plays a version of The Mandarin in Iron Man 3.

Fan Bingbing in a still from the Chinese version of Iron Man 3.

Performers at a promotional event before the release of Iron Man 3 in China. Photo: Reuters

Why Jackie Chan’s 2017 movie The Foreigner, a UK-China co-production, was that rare project to offer the best of both worlds

Jackie Chan in a still from The Foreigner. Photo: Christopher Raphael

Jackie Chan and Rory Fleck Byrne in a still from The Foreigner, directed by Martin Campbell. Photo: Christopher Raphael

Jackie Chan and Katie Leung in a still from The Foreigner. Photo: Christopher Raphael

Pierce Brosnan in a still from The Foreigner.

Jackie Chan (centre) at the China premiere screening of The Foreigner.

How The Last Emperor opened doors for more China co-productions and offered a balanced view of its complicated past

Tao Wu and Joan Chen in a still from The Last Emperor, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

John Lone as Puyi in a scene from Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987). The film opened doors for future co-productions with China.

A still from The Last Emperor.

Film director Bernardo Bertolucci (right) in Beijing, in 1985, with The Last Emperor adviser Pujie, brother of Puyi, the last emperor of China’s Qing dynasty.

How Furious 7 left the competition behind in China, unlike most China-US co-productions

Paul Walker in a scene from Furious 7. When the China-US co-production was released in China in 2015, it broke just about every record going.

A still from Furious 7.

Director James Wan and Vin Diesel on the set of Furious 7.

How 2012 movie The Expendables 2 short-changed Chinese viewers and everyone else, too – but still made US$315 million

Sylvester Stallone in a still from The Expendables 2.

(From left:) Yu Nan, Terry Crews, Sylvester Stallone, Randy Couture and Dolph Lundgren in a still from The Expendables 2.

Jet Li in a still from The Expendables 2.

Arnold Schwarzenegger in a still from The Expendables 2.

Sylvester Stallone (left) and Yu Nan in a still from The Expendables 2.

How US-China co-production The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), co-starring Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, buried a billion-dollar franchise

Jet Li in a still from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Jet Li as the vicious Han Emperor in a still from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008).

Maria Bello (left) and Brendan Fraser in a still from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Luke Ford (left) and Isabella Leong in a still from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Michelle Yeoh in a still from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

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Jet Li (left) and Jackie Chan in a still from The Forbidden Kingdom. Photo: Online


From left: Jackie Chan, Michael Angarano and Liu Yifei in a still from The Forbidden Kingdom (2008). Photo: SCMPost

Jet Li (left) and Jackie Chan in a still from The Forbidden Kingdom. Photo: Online

Jet Li (left) and Jackie Chan arrive for the world premiere of The Forbidden Kingdom in Beijing, China in 2008. Photo: AP

Jet Li and Liu Yifei in a still from The Forbidden Kingdom (2008).

Steven Spielberg’s China-set Empire of the Sun – the first American film to be shot in Shanghai since the 1940s – forgot one important element: the Chinese

Christian Bale (left) in a still from Empire of the Sun.

Christian Bale in a still from Empire of the Sun.

The crowded streets of Shanghai in a still from Empire of the Sun. Directed by Steven Spielberg.

A still from Empire of the Sun.

How The Dark Knight’s makers tried in vain to court China by shooting scenes for Christopher Nolan’s superhero masterpiece in Hong Kong

The Dark Night was partly filmed in Hong Kong.

Batman swoops over Hong Kong’s Central district in a scene from The Dark Knight, which failed to impress China despite its makers’ intentions. Photo: Warner Brothers

Christopher Nolan (right) on the set of The Dark Knight in Hong Kong.

Crowds mob Christian Bale during shooting in Hong Kong in 2007. Photo: SCMP

 Chin Han plays corrupt businessman Lau (right), with Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, in a still from The Dark Knight (2008).

Bad guys changed from Chinese to North Korean in Red Dawn remake at the height of Hollywood appeasing China in 2012 – but it still flopped

Chris Hemsworth in a still from Red Dawn (2012).

(From left) Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson and Chris Hemsworth in a still from Red Dawn. Photo: Ron Phillips/2009 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

‘North Korea’ in a still from Red Dawn.

Chris Hemsworth and cast in a still from Red Dawn.

Will Yun Lee in a still from Red Dawn.

Did China ruin actor Richard Gere’s career after 1997 film Red Corner?

FOR USE WITH FEATURE PACKAGE FOR SUNDAY NOV. 2 --Chinese actress Bai Ling begs Richard Gere not to run in a scene from the movie “Red Corner,” being released Friday, Oct. 31.  “Red Corner,” an account of an American executive framed for murder and railroaded by the Chinese judicial system, is one of five films being released that deal with Chinese oppression.  The fresh batch of China-related films is motivated by genuine concern about international human rights and the film business’ unique position to advocate for change. (AP Photo/Richard Foreman Jr., HO)

Richard Gere in the 1997 film Red Corner, which was highly critical of China. Photo: UPPA

Bai Ling (centre) in a still from Red Corner. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

Richard Gere in a still from Red Corner. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

Richard Gere (centre) and Bai Ling (right) in a still from Red Corner. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios

Is Dwayne Johnson action movie Skyscraper a blueprint for US-China co-production despite being a box-office flop in America?

Dwayne Johnson attends a Skyscraper press conference in Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang

Dwayne Johnson (left) and Chin Han in a still from Skyscraper, a film which courted the Chinese market it wanted to break into with respect. 

Neve Campbell (left) and Dwayne Johnson in a still from Skyscraper.

Johnson with Chin Han (left) and Campbell (right) at the Skyscraper press conference in West Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang

Dwayne Johnson in a still from Skyscraper.

Why this dragon didn’t roar: starring Sam Neill, first Chinese-Australian film co-production The Dragon Pearl was a flop

Sam Neill in a still from The Dragon Pearl.

A still from The Dragon Pearl (2011). In order to appease China and get approval for the film, the character of the dragon was changed and the script rewritten weeks before filming began. 

Li Linjin as Ling (left) and Jordan Chan as Wu Dong in a still from The Dragon Pearl.

Sam Neill as Chris Chase (left) and Robert Mammone as Philip Dukas in a still from The Dragon Pearl.

Louis Corbett and Li Linjin in a still from The Dragon Pearl.

Why Milla Jovovich movie Ultraviolet, a US film shot in China, went so horribly wrong

Milla Jovovich in a still from the 2006 movie Ultraviolet, a US-China co-production that rips off sci-fi standards such as Total Recall, The Matrix and Minority Report.

Milla Jovovich (left) and Cameron Bright in a still from Ultraviolet.

Milla Jovovich in a still from Ultraviolet.

(From left) Ultraviolet director Kurt Wimmer, Charles Wang of producer Salon Films, and John Tsang, then Hong Kong secretary of commerce, industry and technology, in 2004. Photo: SCMP

Why Brad Pitt was banned from China after 1997 movie Seven Years in Tibet

Brad Pitt as mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in a still from Seven Years in Tibet (1997), directed by Jean-Jacque Annaud. Photo: Columbia/Tristar Photo.

Brad Pitt in a still from Seven Years in Tibet (1997), directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud.

Seven Years in Tibet director Jean-Jacques Annaud (left) and star Brad Pitt (centre), and members of the Tibetan Association of Southern California, at the film’s premiere in Los Angeles on October 6, 1997. Photo: Reuters

Brad Pitt (right) as Heinrich Harrer receives a blessing from Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk as the Dalai Lama in a still from Seven Years in Tibet. Photo: Columbia/Tristar Photo

Brad Pitt (left) as Heinrich Harrer and David Thewlis as fellow Austrian mountaineer Peter Aufschnaiter in a still from Seven Years in Tibet. Photo: Columbia/Tristar Photo

Brad Pitt poses for a selfie with Chinese fans as he arrives at a premiere of the film Allied in Shanghai, China on November 14, 2016. Photo: AP

Was Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, a US-Mexico co-production set in Hong Kong, really a show of Hollywood power?

A still from a scene in Hong Kong in Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim”. The film, inspired by Godzilla movies, was criticised by some in China for its geopolitical undertones, but the director argued that it was simply popcorn entertainment. Photo: Warner Bros

Charlie Hunnam (left) and Rinko Kikuchi in a still from “Pacific Rim”. Photo: Warner Bros

A still from “Pacific Rim”. Photo: Warner Bros

Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro signs posters from “Pacific Rim” in Los Angeles, California, in 2013. Photo: EPA/Michael Nelson

How US-China co-production The 355, starring Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain and Fan Bingbing, failed on all fronts

Jessica Chastain as Mason “Mace” Brown in a still from “The 355”, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg.

(From left) Diane Kruger as Marie, Jessica Chastain as Mason “Mace” Brown and Lupita Nyong’o as Khadijah in a still from “The 355”, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg. The US-China co-production, which also featured Fan Bingbing, was a box office flop.

Co-writer/director Simon Kinberg (left) and Jessica Chastain on the set of The 355.

Fan Bingbing as Lin Mi Sheng in a still from The 355, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg.

(From left) Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o and Diane Kruger in a still from The 355.

How Jackie Chan vehicle Skiptrace, a 2016 US-China co-production by Hollywood director Renny Harlin, put the clash in culture clash

Jackie Chan as Benny Chan and Johnny Knoxville as US gambler Connor Watts in a still from US-China co-production Skiptrace (2016). Photo: Intercontinental Film Distributors

Fan Bingbing as Samantha (left), the daughter of Jackie Chan’s partner, and Johnny Knoxville as American gambler Connor Watts (right) in a still from “Skiptrace”.

Film director Renny Harlin in Hong Kong in 2019. Photo: Edmond So

Jackie Chan as Hong Kong detective Benny Chan in a still from “Skiptrace”.

Fan Bingbing in a still from “Skiptrace”.

What happened to 1986’s Ping Pong, pioneering first film shot in London’s Chinatown?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Also the first UK film made by a director of Chinese descent, Leong Po-chih’s Ping Pong flopped upon release but is being rediscovered

Also the first UK film made by a director of Chinese descent, Leong Po-chih’s Ping Pong flopped upon release but is being rediscovered