Japanese film idol Takeshi Kaneshiro has decided to act one of the heroes in famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou's new martial art film.

Zhang, the director of this year's Oscar nominee Hero in the best foreign film section representing China, said he had yet to entitle his new film, but confirmed that it will be his second martial art trial after his failure on Hero.

Kaneshiro said it would be his first cooperation with director Zhang and that he had great interest in performing a Kungfu hero.

Three years ago, Kaneshiro missed the chance to act a major role in Ang Lee's Oscar winner Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but this time, the same thing would never happen again.

Kaneshiro's earnings prospect from Zhang's film is said to be an 8-digit number in Taiwan dollar (1 USD equals to 34 TWD).

The film is planned to start shooting in October and Kaneshiro has just finished dubbing for the latest installment of a PlayStation game, Onimusha 3, in Japan.

The game can also be considered a virtual martial art one, but with scenes set in Japan and France. The game is a popular action-RPG series of stories about samurai (Japanese warrior) against demons.

(Eastday.com August 15, 2003)