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"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" features Jiang Wen and another big-name Chinese actor, Donnie Yen, in its international cast. [Photo provided to China Daily]

When asked about the Chinese actresses widely considered shortchanged for their Hollywood appearances, Jiang says that it would be wrong to blame the actresses. Perhaps the script was not good, or the director or the producer did not do a good job, or their scenes were cut in editing. "At least they were beautiful," he adds.

It is, therefore, natural that Jiang was grilled about his take on his Hollywood experience. (Rogue One was shot in a studio in London, though.)

But he refused to toe the line of movie-star propriety expected from the press.

"I don't see much difference between a big movie there and a big one here," he says.

"The kind of movies I make in China are pretty big, too. With the money they spent, I can shoot a bigger movie here in China. In my movies, the director, the cinematographer and the actors have a lot of say, just like in Rogue One. It's not just a business deal."

He said the real lesson was that so much money could be spent on a movie.

"Without money, you don't have good quality; without quality, you cannot face the audience. Either you have lots of money or very little money because it's painful to be stuck in the middle." ("Rogue One" has a production budget of US$200 million.)

Jiang thinks it "too much" that China's film industry is constantly being compared with Hollywood.

"When the American cowboys were fighting, we were still in the Qing Dynasty, men with ponytails."

But he did say that the use of English can partially explain the global appeal of some of the Hollywood fare.

When probed about his controversial remark on the importance of "aircraft carriers", which he was credited as an explanation for Hollywood's global clout, Jiang again took a contrarian route. Instead of clarifying his position, he simply says: "If the newspapers wanted to gain more readers by quoting me out of context, it is their thing."

Like Jiang, director Edwards refused to elucidate the relationship between Malbus, Jiang's role, and Chirrut Imwe, Yen's role, which is interpreted by some in China and other parts of the world as a potentially homosexual one.

Both are rebel warriors and cover each other in situations of life and death, very much like the ancient heroes in China and Japan.

The old generation would not think twice before taking a line like "I don't need good luck. I have you." as a sign of simple male bonding.

But today's young tend to read more into it. Fan drawings of the duo in various poses of intimacy have popped up online, eliciting laughs and hopefully more fascination in the Star Wars phenomenon as the franchise gradually gains traction in China.

By Monday, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" had grossed US$500 million in the US and slightly less in other markets, including 363 million yuan on the Chinese mainland, according to Box Office Mojo and the Chinese box-office tracking site Movieticket.

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