Last year's Andrew Lau film 'Confessions of Pain', starring Chinese/Japanese star Takeshi Kaneshiro, was funded in part by Avex and included a theme song by their leading music talent, J-Pop super star Hamasaki Ayumi. But their upcoming film collaboration 'The Battle of Red Cliff' being directed by famed director John Woo. A number of prominant Japanese actors have been included in the cast, including Kaneshiro, 'Last Samurai' star Koyuki, and 'Letters from Iwo Jima' star Nakamura Shido. With a budget of approximately US$80 Million, 'Red Cliff' is said to be the most expensive Asian film produced to date.
In addition to having more potential film viewers than even the US market, as well as potentially a larger box office market than Japan in the coming decades, Japanese companies like Avex are also focusing on developing their music business in the greater Asia market as well.
Hamasaki Ayumi's 2007 concert tour included three stops outside of Japan, her first foreign concert date in 5 years, one in Taiwan, one in Hong Kong and one in Shanghai. At the close of the Hong Kong concert, Ayumi perhaps tipped off Avex's China plans when she closed with the statement 'See you again soon!'
Other companies are also joining the push. Japanese girl-band 'Morning Musume' (roughly the Japanese female equivalent of 'Menudo') has recently added two Chinese girls to their 12 girl line-up and announced intentions to tour China in the future.
But the Chinese market still presents many difficulties to foreign entertainment companies, the number one problem is intellectual property. China still has a huge problem of rampant piracy of DVDs and CDs as well as unlicensed merchandise.