娱乐英语新闻:Director of "Welcome to Shama Town" talks about latest production

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhuanet) -- With a long list of TV and film commercials for some of the world's leading brands under his belt and the only Chinese director to win a prestigious One Show Gold award for excellence in advertising, Li Weiran is considered by many as the best in the business. He sat down with the Global Times to reflect over his 10-year career and talk about the future.

"It's like playing video games," the 35-year-old Li mused, explaining that when you can easily clear one stage of the game, it's the next stage that you have not yet cleared that you are looking forward to.

Li's treasure-hunting comedy Welcome to Shama Town opened Tuesday, Li making the "next stage" step from directing commercials to entering the world of feature films.

A poster of Welcome to Shama Town.

He said that after shooting commercials for 10 years, he has lost the initial excitement and sense of achievement in the job that originally attracted him after graduating from Beijing Film Academy in 2000. "Shooting a commercial is plainly to deliver the client's message and concept, with a process that is too familiar and unexciting for me," he said.

The thought of moving on to feature films came to Li in 2003, when he suspended his advertising work and stayed at home due to SARS. He then began to look for a new direction in life. The desire to shoot a feature film with his own signature started to emerge.