With around one-third of Now You See Me 2 based in Macao, and the Mandarin-spouting Mark Ruffalo and Jay Chou forming part of a stellar cast, the feature film is expected to hit the spot with moviegoers on the mainland. Xu Fan reports.

From Mark Ruffalo showing off his Mandarin skills to the plot's generous Chinese content, it appears that Now You See Me 2 is the latest Hollywood tentpole aiming to please China, now the world's most lucrative movie market.

A sequel to the 2013 hit Now You See Me, the crime thriller will open in mainland theaters on June 24.

Typically, cinemas here are dominated by domestic titles over July and August. Consequently, June is flooded with foreign blockbusters.

And competition for screen space is fierce. Along with Now You See Me 2, Independence Day: Resurgence and Hong Kong award-winning director Johnnie To's Three, have premieres on the same date.

So it was no surprise to see Ruffalo - an Oscar nominee - along with Chinese-American director Jon M. Chu turning their Beijing news conference into a "We-love-China" show.

Ruffalo, known to Chinese fans for playing Hulk in Marvel's Avengers franchise, showed off tai chi stunts onstage besides giving the audience a taste of his linguistic skills.

Chu, who was born into a Chinese immigrant family in the United States, says the film and a Beijing tour for his parents fulfilled their decadeslong wish of rediscovering their roots.

Meanwhile, most locals who attended the film's Friday night preview in Beijing, reached a similar conclusion: The feature is Chinese-friendly. And with Taiwan mega star Jay Chou in the cast, the producers seem to have tried hard to connect the film to China.

Also, around one-third of the feature film is based in Macao.

Chou, starring as a Macao magic shop owner, and his granny play key roles in a mysterious organization called the Eye that leads the illusionists.

And Ruffalo, starring as a former FBI agent and the handler of Eye, hints that he can speak Chinese.

But besides these obvious nods to Chinese audiences, the stellar cast is also a big draw.

The villain is played by Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe.

In China, the Harry Potter films, based on J.K. Rowling's books, are widely credited with being among the earliest Hollywood films to open Chinese eyes to Western fantasy epics.

American actor Morgan Freeman and British actor Michael Caine are also familiar faces to Chinese moviegoers.

For director Chu, the stellar cast was one of the main reasons he agreed to do the sequel, despite not having directed the first movie.

Chu says he is a huge fan of French director Louis Leterrier, who directed the first film.

The latest film, in keeping with the franchise's tone of being magician David Copperfield's answer to Robin Hood and his Merry Men, is about four talented illusionists clashing with a tech-savvy villain.

Copperfield, the most commercially successful magician in history as listed by Forbes - and also one of the producers - was "with us from the very beginning and spent a lot of time on the sets teaching the actors", says Chu.

Chu also says that most of the magic sequences, such as Ruffalo being put into a suitcase and being submerged underwater, and a female illusionist "cutting off" her head, were filmed without using digital technology, despite the now common use of computer-generated imagery in Hollywood movies.

There was very little space for Ruffalo. "It was dangerous," the director says, using his right palm to show the height in the suitcase.

He says that, while in the past you saw magic only in front of a curtain, the movie lets you see it from behind the curtain.

Chu adds that after spending two years working on the film, his view of magic has changed.

"Magic is not only magic as we make clear in the movie. Magic is created by people who have a high level of understanding about storytelling through technology, science and presentation," he says.

Ruffalo, who has acted in 54 films in 30 years, also hopes some magic rubs off on him.

"I hope at the end of the day, my tombstone does not say 'Mark Ruffalo, the Hulk.' I hope I can be known for other things that I have done in the past 30 years," the 48-year-old A-lister says, after being asked many times about Hulk, his most familiar role for Chinese movie fans.

Speaking of the film's message about the public's longing for justice, Ruffalo says: "We are seeing thousands of millions of dollars stolen in cyberspace. We've seen some innocent people being put into jail. It's a great feeling to get justice. So I don't think it is an accident that these kinds of films are popular now."

But how far will Hollywood blockbusters go in China's box-office contest this summer?

It seems that even magic may not help them beat off domestic competition.

Contact the writer at xufan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 06/23/2016 page8)