Oh, why won’t people just let poor little Miley Cyrus grow up? She’s trying so hard but with each move, she gets criticized.

Miley Cyrus� latest video clip �Who Owns My Heart� has stirred up quite a bit of controversy. The video shows the young singer embracing a more adult role. The video, in which she is seen wearing provocative clothing while attending an all-night dance party, has raised the ire of the Parents Television Council (PTC) which ironically is a group on which Miley�s father Billy Ray Cyrus sits on the Advisory Board.

Miley Cyrus - Who Owns My Heart

Tim Winter, the president of the Parents Television Council (PTC), said that the former Disney start is sending the wrong visual to young teens who idolize her. This is the same guy who slammed Gossip Girl�s threesome and the Britney Spears� Glee appearance.

“It is unfortunate that she would participate in such a sexualized video like this one,” Winter said. “It sends messages to her fanbase that are diametrically opposed to everything she has done up to this point. Miley built her fame and fortune entirely on the backs of young girls, and it saddens us that she seems so eager to distance herself from that fanbase so rapidly.”

PTC is a group of wrinkled people who regularly gets angry when young woman tries to be sexy, and the latest attempt by Miley Cyrus has predictably ruffled PTC�s feathers.

Cyrus, 17, achieved world-wide fame as the title role� Miley Stewart of Hannah Montana in the Disney Channel sitcom �Hannah Montana.� She appeared as number thirteen on Forbes� 2010 Celebrity 100. Most people find it hard to buy the idea of Cyrus is sexy because of her age and her Hannah Montana role.

Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart in Hannah Montanna

Just like Spears few years ago, Cyrus is creating one scandal after another. First we had the infamous backless photo taken by Annie Leibovitz when she was only 15 years old, which was followed by countless sexy videos and wardrobes malfunctions.

The infamous Miley Cyrus photo taken by Annie Leibovitz

The drama went on when she could be seen simulating a kiss with another woman in �Can’t Be Tamed�, the first single from her third album.

From there on things went from bad to worse with the premiere of her latest clip �Who Owns My Heart,� which took place a few days ago.

In the clip, a scantily-clad Miley can be seen wearing only undies and a tank top as she wakes up in her bed, gets ready in the bathroom, does a steamy dance in the back of a car and then she dances wildly in her tiny shorts and a revealing� halter on the dance floor of a nightclub with raunchy dancers.

Miley Cyrus in "Who Owns My Heart"

It seems like she either returns back home at the end, or she realizes it was all a dream, as she�s in the same waking position as in the beginning of video. There�s a strong, dance beat throughout the lyrics with a catchy tune, even causing Miley to gyrate and move about during the storyline.

This isn’t the first time the Disney star has courted controversy in her attempts to break away from her squeaky-clean, teen idol status. Her pole-dancing move at the at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards grabbed headlines and her latest LP, “Can’t Be Tamed”, features a much more vampy persona than her “Hannah Montana” image.

“I’m a completely different person than when I released 2008′s Breakout. I’m much more confident. You know, I’ve always been a confident person, but I was going through a lot then,” Cyrus told MTV News in June. “There’s so many people in your life telling you who you should and shouldn’t be,” Cyrus said. “And that’s what Tamed is about. It’s about being who you are to the fullest. And now I know who that is.”

Take a look at the video and make your own conclusion as to whether the whole thing has been blown out of proportions.

Maybe Miley Cyrus is right: She �Can�t Be Tamed.�

Jonathan William Lipnicki (born October 22, 1990) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the Hollywood films Jerry Maguire, Stuart Little, The Little Vampire, and Like Mike. He is ranked #13 in VH1�s list of the�`100 Greatest Kid Stars.�

A very young Jonathan Lipnicki

Lipnicki was born in Westlake Village, California, son of Joseph and Rhonda (maiden name, Rosen) Lipnicki. He has an older sister, Alexis. Lipnicki is Jewish; his father was born in a refugee camp in Germany, grew up in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and immigrated to the United States in the 1960s in response to the events involving the Quebec independence movement.

Lipnicki, nicknamed Jonny, is known for his contributions to charity, having appeared and/or spoken at events for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Starlight Children’s Foundation and NBA’s Read to Achieve.

He is also the international spokesperson for Pediatric Chiropractic and Kids Day American/International. He was named one of “the heroes of 2001″ by JDRF for his involvement.

Lipnicki, who has four dogs, is also involved in animal rights groups, including Pets & Their Stars and the Nuts for Mutts.

An adult Jonathan Lipnicki

Lipnicki made his film debut in 1996′s Jerry Maguire as the son of Ren�e Zellweger’s character. In 1999, he starred in the film Stuart Little, playing a boy whose family adopts a talking mouse, a role he reprised in the film’s 2002 sequel. Lipnicki also played the lead role in the 2000 film �The Little Vampire� and starred opposite Bow Wow in the 2002 theatrical film Like Mike, which was released two weeks before Stuart Little 2; both of the films did relatively well in theaters. He also starred in the 2003 children movie �When Zachary Beaver Came To Town.� He was the voice behind the Baby Tiger character in the 1998 movie Dr Doolittle. He also appeared in the 2005 indie-movie �The L.A. Riot Spectacular.�

On television, he has appeared on Blowin� Up,The Single Guy, The Family Guy, Monk, Touched By An Angel, The Jeff Foxworthy Show and The Late Late Show as well as episodes of Dawson’s Creek and the 1997 sitcom Meego.

An advocate for good health through chiropractic care, his personal quotation is : “If you want to perform at your ultimate best, if you want to be the best you can be in sports and in school, mentally, physically – chiropractic is the way, because everything has to do with your nervous system.”

He has been a fan of Mixed Martial Arts since the nineties and practices brazilian jiu jitsu currently under Alan Zborovsky.

�Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” is a 2010 sequel to the 1987 popular movie “Wall Street”. It follows the actions of Gordon Gekko, a Wall Street trader, after his release from prison. This is the first sequel Oliver Stone has done to any of his movie.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” was a wake-up call about the financial wreck Wall Street was headed for. Had we only listened. Or perhaps we listened too well, and Gordon Gekko became the role model for a generation of amoral financial pirates who put hundreds of millions into their pockets while bankrupting their firms and bringing the economy to its knees.

Michael Douglas reprises his Academy Award-winning role of Gordon Gekko and Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, and Frank Langella also star in the film. Charlie Sheen reprises his role as Bud Fox as a cameo. Actress Susan Sarandon who plays Shia�s mother shines in a very minor role.

The first movie left off with Gekko going to jail after Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) sang like a canary to the judges over Gekko�s involvement with insider trading.� In the sequel, it is now 2008 and Gordon Gekko is released from prison and finds himself a little outdated and an outcast.

Set in New York City, the film takes place 23 years after the original, revolving around the 2008 financial crisis. The film’s plot mainly centers around the reformed Gekko acting as more of an antihero rather than a villain and follows his attempts to help Wall Street before its soon-to-be stock market crash as well as trying to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan) with the help of Jack Moore (Shia LaBeouf), Winnie’s fiance. In return, Gekko helps Jack get revenge on the man he blames for his mentor’s death.

Jake Moore works for an old-line Wall Street house named Keller Zabel, headed by his mentor and father figure Louis Zabel (Frank Langella). This firm is brought to its knees by Bretton James (Josh Brolin), who is instrumental in spreading rumors about its instability. In a tense boardroom confrontation, Zabel is forced to sell out for a pittance. The next morning, he rises, has his soft-boiled egg, and throws himself under a subway train.

The death of his beloved mentor gives Jake a motive: He wants revenge on Bretton James, and suddenly all the parts come together: How he can hurt James, enlist Gekko, look good to Winnie, gain self-respect and maybe even make a nice pile of money along the way. Meanwhile, Gekko also has an old axe to grind with James and will stop at nothing, including using his daughter, to get back on top. Then the story hurries along as more melodrama than expose.

A scene from Wall Street Money Never Sleeps

The premise behind the new movie is based on the 2008 financial crash, when the large banks faltered and required bailouts from the government.� �Greed is Good�, the line that was made famous by Gordon Gekko is still used, but this time he is doing it the �legal way�.

It’s a smart, glossy, beautifully photographed film that knows its way around the Street (Stone’s father was a stockbroker). Stone’s film is not only topical, it holds out lessons for the future too. For as Gekko tells us: Greed has not only become greedier, it has become legal now. More importantly, money is the `bitch that never sleeps….’

Is greed still good?

Gekko: �Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms � greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge � has marked the upward surge of mankind.�

Yes, the sequel has strength; Wall Street never sleeps, and Gordon Gekko still beckons.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a two-part fantasy-adventure movie directed by David Yates and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007, ending the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. This book chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and leads to the long-awaited final confrontation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.

The film will be the seventh and final instalment in the Harry Potter film series, and the third to be directed by Yates. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry’s best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The story follows the trio on a quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort’s secret to immortality – the Horcruxes.

Part I will be released on 19 November 2010 and Part II on 15 July 2011 Both parts will be released by Warner Bros Pictures in 2D and 3D formats on their individual release dates. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be the only entry from the series to be converted entirely in 3D. It will also be released in IMAX 3D.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Gallows Part 1

The decision to divide Rowling’s final book into a two-part movie came from the original declined proposal to split Goblet of Fire in 2004. Deathly Hallows was shot back to back, and treated as if it were one film. The idea to split the book into a two-part movie had been around since the middle of 2007, but only came into serious consideration after producer David Heyman was able to talk to writer Steve Kloves when the 2007�2008 Writers Guild of America strike ended and Heyman had Rowling’s approval. Kloves started his work on the script for the second part in April 2009.

According to Warner Bros. executive Alan F. Horn it will allow “an extra hour and a half to celebrate what this franchise has been and do justice to all the words and ideas in the amazing story.” Heyman described the workings behind the split: “Deathly Hallows is so rich, the story so dense and there is so much that is resolved that, after discussing it with J. K. Rowling, we came to the conclusion that two parts were needed.” Kloves was not able to start work on the script until the WGA strike ended.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 begins as Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the secret to Voldemort’s immortality and destruction–the Horcruxes. On their own, without the guidance of their professors or the protection of Professor Dumbledore, the three friends must now rely on one another more than ever. But there are Dark Forces in their midst that threaten to tear them apart. Meanwhile, the wizarding world has become a dangerous place for all enemies of the Dark Lord. The long-feared war has begun and Voldemort’s Death Eaters seize control of the Ministry of Magic and even Hogwarts, terrorizing and arresting anyone who might oppose them. But the one prize they still seek is the one most valuable to Voldemort: Harry Potter. The Chosen One has become the hunted one as the Death Eaters search for Harry with orders to bring him to Voldemort…alive. Harry’s only hope is to find the Horcruxes before Voldemort finds him. But as he searches for clues, he uncovers an old and almost forgotten tale–the legend of the Deathly Hallows. And if the legend turns out to be true, it could give Voldemort the ultimate power he seeks. Little does Harry know that his future has already been decided by his past when, on that fateful day, he became �the Boy Who Lived.� No longer just a boy, Harry Potter is drawing ever closer to the task for which he has been preparing since the day he first stepped into Hogwarts: the ultimate battle with Voldemort.

The gang's all here.... Harry, Ron and Hermione in a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I.

Harry and Hermione in one of the movie's camping sequences.

Ron and Harry switch into stalker mode in a scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I.

Harry riding in the sidecar of Hagrid's giant motorbike.

Hedwig is back...sending owl mail

Helena Bonham Carter and Jason Isaacs put aside the crazy for a second to have a serious meeting about the "Boy Who Lived" in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I

Hermione gets her spell on.

Hermione takes part in a bloody battle in a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I.

t's time for smoochies... Harry and Ginny get close in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I.

A scene from the ambush at Luna Lovegood's house.

Harry and Voldemort

Xenophilius Lovegood ends up betraying Harry to save his daughter.

“These are dark times, there is no denying,” intones a serious-looking Rufus Scrimgeour at the start of the new Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows: Part I trailer.

The latest trailer for the highly anticipated 3D sequel just dropped, and it’s the most dark, twisty and action-packed clip yet. As the trailer says of the Harry/Voldemort battle, in the end “only one can live.”

Watch the trailer below:

A new Pokemon Black and White started selling on the market on September 22, 2010 and most stores in Japan are sold out and millions of people preordered it. Pokemon is huge business. There are a lot of addicts of Pokemon games who love collecting them. Gotta catch them all, right?

Pokemon Black & White

With the release of Pokemon Black and White, Pokemon trainers have new maps and a new game to play on the land of Pokemon.� New Pokemon species are also added in the Pokedex.� In the previous Pokemon release, the Pokemon Platinum, they had tons of Wi-fi related interactive games.� Pokemon gamers will have new stuff to experience with the new Pokemon Black and White series Riding on the waves of the Pokemon Black & White worldwide craze , some people created a trailer of Pokemon Apocalypse which has gone viral on the web but the question about its authenticity arises. The video quality of Pokemon Apocalypse trailer is quite amazing as fan-made videos get dark and gritty most of the time, but something about the video trailer is not right.

A lot of people have been confused whether this is a trailer for a real movie or not.� Apparently, it is now almost certain that this is just a product of a group of Pokemon gamers� passion for the game. The �persons behind the trailer are Lee Majdoub and Kial Natale who have this to say about the trailer:

LEE MAJDOUB: It was a side project we came up with while working on a short film. We were talking about live-action ideas. Kial wanted GTA. I wanted Dragon Ball Z. I think somebody mentioned something about Pokemon and Kial and I made eye contact and ideas just started flowing. Kial wrote a script almost immediately. I read it and sent him back my thoughts, and we did that back and forth for a while. We actually wrote it as a film and filmed full scenes. We wanted to make it as legitimate as possible. Major kudos to Kial for actually taking the first step.

KIAL NATALE: This project really snowballed out of control. For me, it started off as an attempt to make a video on par with College Humor�s original content: their parodies are spot on, with amazing production value. Somewhere down the line, however, my long dormant Pok�mon fanaticism kicked in and I just wanted it to be more and more. I started adding more scenes and re-working the Pok�mon effects: for anyone who thought our CG looks bad now, you should have seen them before!

The synopsis of the trailer:

Pikachu, the most favorite Pokemon of Ash almost dies in corrupt underground Pok�mon fights. Ash�s loved ones have been threatened by Team Rocket with guns. Celadon City hasn�t been the same since the Gyms closed down. Pok�mon fighting has gone underground, and the sport has gotten a taste for blood. Ash, Misty, and Brock have been forced deep into the city�s seedy criminal subculture to keep training, but the Pok�mon aren�t the only ones in danger. Now, Ash must choose to either become a master in the grim world of illegal pok�mon fighting, or make a desperate stand to free them all from the criminal grip of Rocket Industries.

Pikachu

Pokemon….gotta catch them all!

Hongkong superstar Chow Yun Fat, aged 55, has pledged to donate 99 per cent of his reported HK$1 billion ($130 million) wealth for charity upon his death. He told Hong Kong paper Sun Daily: “This is not my money, I just earned them but this doesn�t mean it will be forever mine.”

Chow has been married twice; first in 1983 to Candice Yu , an actress from Asia Television Limited that lasted nine months. In 1986, Chow married Singaporean Jasmine Tan. Chow transition from Hong Kong movie star to international star was in no small part due to his wife’s planning and financial support. The couple has no children, although Chow has a goddaughter, Celine Ng, a former child model for Chickeeduck and other companies.

Chow Yun Fat and his wife Jasmine Tan

“I’m not taking anything with me (when I die),” he said.

Chow has come to an agreement with his Singaporean wife Jasmine Tan to donate his wealth.

Chow Yun-fat is best known in Asia for his collaboration with filmmaker John Woo in heroic bloodshed genre films A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard-Boiled; and to the West for his role as Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He mainly plays in dramatic films and has won three Hong Kong Film Awards for “Best Actor” and two Golden Horse Awards for “Best Actor” in Taiwan.

Chow was born on May 18, 1955 in Hong Kong, to a mother who was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer, and a Hakka father who worked at a Shell Oil Company tanker. He grew up in a farming community on Lamma Island in a house with no electricity. He woke up at dawn each morning to help his mother sell herbal jelly and Hakka tea-pudding on the streets and in the afternoons he went to work in the fields. His family moved to Kowloon when he was ten. At seventeen, he quit school to help support the family by doing odd jobs – bellboy, postman, camera salesman, taxi driver. His life started to change when he responded to a newspaper advertisement and his actor-trainee application was accepted by TVB, the local television station. He signed a three-year contract with the studio and made his acting debut. With his striking good looks and easy-going style, Chow became a heartthrob and a familiar face in soap operas that were exported internationally.

Chow became a household name in Hong Kong following his role in the hit series The Bund in 1980. The Bund, about the rise and fall of a gangster in 1930s Shanghai, was one of the most popular TV series ever made in Hong Kong and was a hit throughout Asia.

Chow Yun Fat in The Bund

Although Chow continued his TV success, his goal was to become a big screen actor. His occasional ventures onto the big screens with low-budget films, however, were disastrous. Success finally came when he teamed up with director John Woo in the 1986 gangster action-melodrama A Better Tomorrow, which swept the box offices in Asia and established Chow and Woo as megastars. A Better Tomorrow won him his first Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. It was the highest grossing film in Hong Kong history at the time, and it set the standard for Hong Kong gangster films to come. Taking the opportunity, Chow quit TV entirely. With his new image from A Better Tomorrow, he made many more �’heroic bloodshed’ films, such as A Better Tomorrow 2 (1987), Prison on Fire, Prison on Fire II, The Killer (1989), A Better Tomorrow 3 (1990), Hard Boiled (1992) and City on Fire an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.

Chow Yun Fat in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow

Chow may be best known for playing honorable tough guys, whether cops or criminals, but he also starred in comedies like Diary of a Big Man (1988) and Now You See Love, Now You Don’t (1992) and romantic blockbusters such as Love in a Fallen City (1984) and An Autumn’s Tale (1987), for which he was named best actor at the Golden Horse Awards. He brought together his disparate personae in the 1989 film God of Gamblers (Du Shen), directed by the prolific Wong Jing, in which he was by turns suave charmer, broad comedian and action hero. The film surprised many, became immensely popular, broke Hong Kong’s all-time box office record, and spawned a series of gambling films, as well as several comic sequels starring Andy Lau and Stephen Chow.

The Los Angeles Times proclaimed Chow Yun-Fat “the coolest actor in the world.” Being one of the biggest stars in Hong Kong, Chow moved to Hollywood in the mid ’90s in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to duplicate his success in Asia. His first two films, The Replacement Killers (1998) and The Corruptor (1999), were box office disappointments. In his next film Anna and the King (1999), Chow teamed up with Jodie Foster, but the film suffered at the box office. Chow then returned to the east and accepted the role of Li Mu-Bai in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It became a winner at both the international box office and the Oscars, finally making Chow a global star. In 2003, Chow came back to Hollywood and starred in Bulletproof Monk in yet another Asian stereotyped role of a martial art expert. In 2006, he teamed up with Gong Li in the film, Curse of the Golden Flower, directed by Zhang Yimou.

Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Chow Yun Fat and voluptuous Gong Li in Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower

In Chow�s latest movie �Shanghai�, he is again teamed up with the gorgeous Gong Li and international stars John Cusack and Ken Watanabe. In this Mikael Hafstrom�s film, Chow played the role of a triad boss with Gong Li as his wife. I watched the movie two weeks ago and found it to be quite a good movie. Both Chow and Gong Li gave solid performances in this spy thriller set in Shanghai during World War II.

Chow as a triad boss in the movie Shanghai

Chow has said that the money he made is not his. What a philosophy! I salute you, man!

I have previously written a post about the Chinese movie “Aftershock” by Feng Xiaogang. A few days ago, I finally watched this movie and it has been a wonderful experience. It really tugged at my heartstrings and I just could not help tears from welling up in my eyes.

"Aftershock" movie poster

�Aftershock� is not your typical disaster flick but more of a family melodrama revolving around perennial themes of love, choices, human trauma, pain and forgiveness. The movie has a number of serious tear jerker moments, it tells a very touching story and it will have you thinking about it long after.

“Aftershock” is a fictional story set during a real-life event and benefits from the unflinching powerhouse portrayal of the director’s actress wife Xu Fan as a mother who was caught in a heart-wrenching dilemma of choosing between saving her son or her daughter during the atrocities of natural disaster. It is a strong, textured drama with very decent CGI work that doesn’t detract from the primary focus of building on themes of guilt, abandonment, closure and redemption

Yuan Ni (Xu Fan), the mother who is the focus of the movie, lost her husband in the Tangshan Earthquake in 1976 and, forced to make the difficult decision between saving her son Fonda or her daughter Fan Teng, she chose her son. What she didn�t know was that her daughter overheard her decision and survived the calamity. The daughter Fan Teng suffered from the painful memory of her mother’s decision to abandon her and was traumatised by this childhood experience.

Mother frantically searching for her daughter and son

Mother carrying her seriously injured son to seek medical attention not realising that her daughter had also survived the calamity.

The daughter all alone after regaining consciousness

Fan Teng was adopted by a couple from the People’s Liberation Army and grew up in comfortable conditions, while her mother and her twin brother (who lost an arm in the quake) struggled to get by back in Tangshan.� The story follows the diverging path of the siblings (who are twins) as they grow up, as well as the rough experience faced by her mother.

Fan Teng adopted by a military couple

When the Sichuan earthquake struck in 2008, Fan Teng volunteered to join the rescue team and returned from Canada to her homeland China. As she witnessed the tribulations people suffered, she finally unlocked the pain she had felt all these years and found forgiveness for her mother. She was finally reunited with the mother and twin brother after 32 years.

The daughter Fan Teng, now an adult, returning to China to help out during the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake

Let me warn you again that this is a movie that will really tug at your heartstrings and bring tears to your eyes. Make sure you have tissue paper with you when you watch this movie!

Since its nationwide premiere on July 22 and playing on an unprecedented 4,000-plus screens in China, Feng Xiaogang’s disaster drama “Aftershock” has taken just two weeks to become the most profitable Chinese-language film ever, setting the all-time domestic box office record for a Chinese film with RMB 532 million ($79 million) in ticket sales. By taking the number one spot, “Aftershock” has unseated the 2009 star-studded propaganda movie “The Founding of a Republic,” a movie marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which earned RMB 420 million ($62 million).

The film is a tearjerker, about a mother’s three-decade-long struggle with the emotional repercussions of the 1976, 7.8-magnitude devastating Tangshan earthquake, which killed more than 250,000 people, and then the same, now broken family, reuniting in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that left more than 85,000 dead or missing.�The movie examines the aftermath of the earthquake through the story of a present-day mother’s three-decade journey to an emotional reunion with the daughter she thought she had lost to the disaster.

“Aftershock” also set a new box office record when it earned RMB 36.2 million on its first day, the most ever made by a locally made movie on opening day. �Aftershock�, with a budget of more than US$20 million, quite hefty by Chinese standards, is also the first Chinese-directed movie to be screened in IMAX theaters.�About half of the budget was provided by the Tangshan city government.

As the first Chinese film to be seen on IMAX screens, “Aftershock” represents the company�s investment in China. With the film’s success, IMAX Corp. expects to have 57 screens in operation in China by 2012.

China’s all-time box office champion is James Cameron’s sci-fi epic “Avatar,” which raked in $204 million this year, smashing the previous record held by disaster film “2012.”

Although little known in the West, Feng has directed a string of Chinese hits, including the comedies “If You Are the One” and “Big Shot’s Funeral,” along with the Chinese Civil War saga “Assembly.”

Feng Xiaogang

Also released in IMAX format, the movie was a technical breakthrough for the Chinese film industry, drawing on help from visual effects experts from South Korea and the post-production division of French media company Technicolor.

New Zealand’s Weta Workshop � the Oscar-winning design company behind the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy � advised on miniature models that doubled for 1976 Tangshan.

This is the second crown for Feng, whose 2008 romantic comedy “If You Are the One” earned RMB 350 million, a new record for Chinese cinema before it was outdone by the all-star epic “The Founding of a Republic” in 2009 with RMB 420 million.

I seldom watch movies made in China but �Aftershock� is one movie that I look forward to watching!