Category: China Film
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, the full uncut version of Quentin Tarantino’s epic, finally gets its theatrical release this week, more than two decades after the original release of Volume 1. Executive producer Harvey Weinstein had deemed the film too long, and Tarantino opted to divide it into two […]
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Film Studios Around China
Across mainland China entire towns have been constructed around producing movie and TV content. For “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai,” I visited over a dozen major film production sites, though many more exist. The title refers to the origin of China’s film industry in Shanghai, but film and tv […]
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Book Talk at JF Books in DC
I recently spoke about my book “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai” at JF Books in Washington DC. The shop is a great addition to the city, specializing in books about China, foreign policy, and political science and providing a space for book talks and community events. JF Books started […]
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Beijing Book Presentation with the RASBJ
In the fall of 2025, I was back in Beijing for the first time post-COVID and 10 years after I first started photographing Chinese film sets. I shared my photobook project at an event organized by the Royal Asiatic Society of Beijing and hosted at La Maison Lyonnaise. In conversation […]
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China Film Production Base
Things were very quiet on my recent visit to the China Film Group Production Base in Huairou, outside Beijing.
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Beijing Film Studio Update
When I the old Beijing Film Studio site in 2018, the surviving buildings were slated for demolition.
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Shanghai Film Studio’s ‘Nanjing Road’
If you’ve seen a film or TV show set in period Shanghai, you’ve probably seen this three block long stretch of 1930s-era Nanjing Road. Originally constructed with Taiwanese financing for Chen Kaige’s “Temptress Moon” in 1995, it’s been reused for numerous films from Ang Lee’s “Lust, Caution” to future science fiction film “Looper.” I created a brief video retrospective on the many lives of this movie set. Click on the viewer above to watch.
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‘Kill Bill’ at the Beijing Film Studio
In 2002, Quentin Tarantino filmed parts of Kill Bill at the historic Beijing Film Studio. The studio lot is now abandoned and the remaining warehouses and set decorations are slated for demolition.
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Book Video: Once Upon a Time in Shanghai
I put together this 5 minute video to present my latest book ‘Once Upon a Time in Shanghai: Behind the Scenes of the Chinese Movie Industry’ (Daylight Books, 2019). I wanted to share what I find so fascinating about the mainland China film industry, as well as the process and thought that went into making the photographs.
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Changchun Film Studio
The Changchun Film Studio was the first official state-run film studio recognized in the People’s Republic of China. It was created through merging multiple existing film production facilities and, in 1955, was given a permanent home in Changchun. For several decades, the studio occupied a cluster of buildings which had […]
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