Peter Chan's new martial arts epic, "The Warlords," has beaten Ang Lee's much bankable "Lust, Caution" to secure the No.1 spot at the 2007 Chinese-language box-office.

As of Sunday, "The Warlords" has raked in 260 million yuan (US$35.74 million), ten million more than "Lust, Caution," the second strongest box-office winner, said a report on Web portal Sina.com.cn.

"The Warlords" is being or has been screened in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Singapore and Malaysia. It reaped 200 million yuan on the mainland alone, making Peter Chan the second Chinese director, following Zhang Yimou, to have crossed the 200-million-yuan boundary.

The film, starring Andy Lau, Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Xu Jinglei, revolves around the story of three sworn brothers in the Qing Dynasty in the 1860s.
 
(CRI January 8, 2008)