December 2008 is shaping up to be a busy month in China’s movie theatres as some of the biggest names in the industry are set to release films over the festive season. The Olympics forced most distributors to put films on hold but now that’s over, its looking like we will have a very merry movie-going Christmas.

First up is ‘Farewell, My Concubine’ helmer Chen Kaige’s latest exploration of the Peking opera world, ‘Mei Lanfang’. The film stars Leon Lai and Zhang Ziyi in the leading roles with an appearance by Gillian “Twins” Chung. One of China’s greatest helmers, critics felt he dropped the ball with his martial arts epic ‘The Promise’ two years ago and will be keen to see if the three-years-in-the-making biopic marks a return to form.

Tsui Hark’s new comedy, ‘Not All Women are Bad’ (renamed ‘All About Women’ on the mainland after the Film Bureau reportedly disapproved of its English title) is also due for release on December 4th. The film features some of the biggest names from Greater China cinema including Zhou Xun from the mainland, Kwai Lun-mei from Taiwan and Hong Kong’s Kitty Zhang.

Finally, Beijing local hero Feng Xiaogang is set to release his newest film, hoping to capitalise on the success of his patriotic war pic ‘Assembly’. ‘If You Are My Match’ stars regular collaborator Ge You and Shu Qi. and is due for release on December 22nd.