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John Woo oversees the night shoot of his latest feature film,"Red Cliff" on the set in San Du,China.

People's Liberation Army trucks rumble to a stop on a potholed road two hours from Beijing, then disgorge more than 100 troops back into the third century.

They are warriors in Hong Kong director John Woo's new Mandarin-language film ``Red Cliff'' -- the most expensive Asian movie ever. The $70 million epic about the battle that created China's Three Kingdoms is the first film Woo has directed in China since he headed to the U.S. to make hits such as ``Mission: Impossible II.''

Hong Kong's movie industry, which gave Bruce Lee his start but lost out to Hollywood in the 1990s, is booming again after new trade rules provided access to the mainland. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Standard Chartered Plc are bankrolling Hong Kong filmmakers to tap the Chinese market, which the government estimates may grow 30 percent annually over the next decade.

A 2005 trade accord gave Hong Kong movies free access to neighboring Guangdong province, which shares the Cantonese language with Hong Kong. In addition, films in which a third of the cast and crew are Chinese now qualify as co-productions under a program that guarantees they can be shown in Chinese theaters.

Ticket sales for Hong Kong films increased by about 40 percent to the equivalent of $133 million last year, says Liu Zhongyi, chief operating officer of chinacoproduction.com, a Chinese government-sponsored Web site providing information on joint-venture movies.

Box Office Bonanza

China's box-office receipts jumped by a third to 2.62 billion yuan ($349 million) last year, and sales will continue to rise as theaters open in smaller cities, Liu says.

Hollywood is taking notice. Weinstein Co., an independent film producer, in September said it would start a $285 million Hong Kong-based fund backed by the Goldman Sachs to make English- language movies in Asia. Goldman spokesman Edward Naylor declined to comment.

The fund is not China-focused, but we are keen to work with partners in China,'' says Michael Cole, 42, Weinstein's Los Angeles-based co-president of production. ``It's a great place to get in on the ground floor in terms of distribution.''

London-based Standard Chartered funded ``Curse of the Golden Flower,'' a story of intrigue inside the Imperial Palace during the 10th century that became the top-grossing film in China last year. The bank, which gets most of its revenue from Asia, is searching for more Mandarin-language movies to finance, says Susan Ho, a Hong Kong-based director.

Unprecedented Opportunities'

With his $70 million budget, Woo hired Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, winner of the best actor award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, production designer Tim Yip who worked on Academy Award winner ``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,'' and 600 extras from the People's Liberation Army.

The opening up of China's movie business has presented Hong Kong talent with unprecedented opportunities,'' Woo says.

Hong Kong's role as the Hollywood of Asia developed largely because of political upheaval on the mainland. Shanghai was Asia's movie capital until Mao Zedong took power in China, prompting many filmmakers to flee.

Under communist rule, Chinese studios made only propaganda movies. Hong Kong films were banned because of their capitalist themes and colonial overtones, says Ng Chun Bong, a professor of cinema and television at Hong Kong's Baptist University.

Hong Kong studios, including Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Golden Harvest Films, exported musicals and kung-fu flicks like Lee's ``Enter the Dragon.'' Shaw also co-produced Blade Runner,'' the 1982 science-fiction film starring Harrison Ford.

Changing Tastes

The industry staggered in the mid-1990s as moviegoers favored Hollywood films. Movies produced by local studios accounted for about 40 percent of Hong Kong ticket sales last year, down from 80 percent in the early 1990s, says Woody Tsung, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories Motion Picture Industry Association.

The younger Southeast Asians are different than their grandparents,'' says Baptist University's Ng. ``They feel greater affinity with American than Chinese or East Asian culture.''

In 2000, Ang Lee's ``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' showed there was a global market for movies made in China. A period film featuring Asian stars, elaborate costumes and kung-fu choreography, ``Crouching Tiger'' grossed $128 million in the U.S. and won the Oscar for best foreign film.

The opening of the mainland Chinese market has given Hong Kong producers another incentive to boost spending.

Last year's hit ``Golden Flower,'' which was also distributed worldwide, had a $40 million price tag, compared with an average of less than $10 million for Hong Kong movies, according to Ho of Standard Chartered.