IT has been praised as not only a great film, but a symbol of artistic freedom. Its director was condemned in his homeland for advocating homosexuality and praising the enemies of communism. It has won two top awards, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme D'Orand a Golden Globe.
The film is Farewell to My Concubine and mainland director Chen Kaige's 1993 epic is at the centre of a new controversy, this time over the coveted Oscars.
The film was selected by Sir Run Run Shaw to represent Hong Kong at the Oscars for the best foreign language film award. But film industry watchers both in Hong Kong and Hollywood are asking, should it really be called a Hong Kong film? According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' own guidelines for selection consideration, it should not.
A spokesman for the Oscars body, director of communications John Pavlik, said the academy's executive committee which selects foreign language films ''tries to bend over backwards to include good films''.
But has it bent so far that it has broken its own rules? Not so, says Mr Pavlik. The selection committee sent out a three-point guideline list to all countries wishing to nominate a movie for the foreign language film Oscar. Each country can nominate just one film, 35 have this year been submitted for consideration for the final five.
The guidelines are: The submitting country must be present in at least three of these categories: producer(s) director(s) writer(s). There is a note added to the official entry form which states that only those with full producer credit are entitled to represent the picture. If the contribution is essentially financial, ''it will not be regarded as satisfying the requirement''.