Walk on the wild side

Lu Chuan says directing the film has also helped him learn more about filmmaking management.[Photo provided to China Daily]

With the snow leopards, for instance, it was very hard to get the right footage for sequences, so Lu was forced to rewrite this bit of the story.

"Changes in the environment have forced the snow leopards to expand their range of movement from 20 kilometers earlier to 80 now. So, this made it challenging when it came to following them," he says.

The wild giant panda, described by Lu as a "lonely creature", and the Tibetan antelope, which moves hundreds of kilometers every summer, were also challenging when it came to filming.

Though the film took more time than his other projects, Lu says it was worthwhile, as it gave him a lot of insight into both nature and people.

Lu says while China has enhanced its protection of endangered species and natural habitats in recent years, an expanding population and increasing urbanization has meant a shrinking space for wild animals.

Expressing concern about this trend, he says: "If a country had no wild animals it will be tragic."

Besides Born in China, Lu is now involved in another English film, River Town.

Based on American author and journalist Peter Hessler's best-selling memoir River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, the film is produced by Jamie Gordon and Courtney Potts from Fugitive Films.

While Lu is reluctant to give details of the film, he says American scriptwriter Tristine Skyler is now working on the film.

The book is about Hessler's teaching experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote town in southwestern China in the 1990s.

Lu says the most interesting part for him is that it reflects the life of ordinary Chinese amid the country's unprecedented transformation.

An English major, Lu does not face problems with the language, which is a barrier for many Chinese directors when it comes to working internationally.

His English skills have also helped him earn popularity in English-speaking film markets.

Lu who recently won two awards at the 2016 WorldFest-Houston, one of North America's longest-running film festivals, has just returned from a trip of Britain, where he supervised the post-production work for Born in China besides delivering a speech at Oxford University.

Lu first gained international recognition in 2009 for City of Life and Death, a war epic based on the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.

His earlier works of note include The Missing Gun (2002) and Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (2004).

In recent years, Lu has directed several big-budget commercial films, such as the Daniel Wu-starrer The Last Supper and adventure fantasy Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe.

But despite his big-budget work, Lu is widely regarded as a diligent filmmaker who works hard to strike a balance between art and commercial interests.

"No matter how the market behaves, I believe the only thing that will earn you a spot in (cinematic history) is quality films," he says.

Contact the writer at xufan@chinadaily.com.cn