The Great Wall director Zhang Yimou, 68, back at his best with Shadow – and he has no plans of slowing down

Zhang Yimou fixes me with a stare when I ask if his latest film Shadow is his toughest assignment yet. “Everything is difficult for me!” he says.

It’s not the sort of statement you’d expect from China’s premier director. From the early days of Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern to blockbusters like Hero and House of Flying Daggers, his films appear almost effortlessly crafted. Despite his comment, “difficult” doesn’t seem in his vocabulary.

Even his troubled last film, The Great Wall, saw the 68-year-old Zhang overcome the odds – and the trickiness of a Hollywood-Chinese co-production – to create a fantasy monster film that, despite critical apathy, still took US$335 million around the world.

It’s even more remarkable when you consider the negative press that film got on social media in the run-up to release, with users claiming the role played by Matt Damon should’ve gone to an Asian actor.

So what did he learn? “Well, that was a Hollywood movie,” he reflects. “I had the chance to see how films are made in Hollywood, but it’s not something I can use directly in making films in China. It was an experience.”