Wong's small wonders

Director Wong Jing says he will be exercising caution when he makes movies after seeing big-budget films such as Lust, Caution lose money.

'It's an illusion,' he said. 'Most of the so-called big-budget films made in the past two years all lost money. Hardly any film companies will dare to come forward and admit they lost money on their films last year - and this includes Lust, Caution, the film everyone loves.'

Wong's latest small-budget movie is a comedy called My Wife is a Gambling Maestro, starring Nick Cheung Ka-fai and Shanghainese actress Meng Yao.

After more than 30 years in the business, Wong, 53, has produced, written and directed more than 175 films, making him one of the most productive directors in Hong Kong.

Most of his films are small budget yet commercially successful, such as the Romancing Star series in the late 1980s and the God of Gamblers series in the early 1990s starring Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau Tak-wah and Stephen Chow Sing-chi.

He says low-budget films have an advantage - even if they bomb at the box office, losses are minimal.

'A low-budget film only takes about six months to make compared to the two-year process of making a big-budget film,' he said. 'Not a lot of people have the experience and confidence to make successful, small, commercial films, therefore if they think they have to lose money, they'd rather lose it on some big projects so they won't lose face.