Asian films win with American audiences.

Byline: Chris Vognar

TORONTO _ Zhang Yimou's honor-and-action epic "Hero" shattered box-office records in China and topped the U.S. charts in its first two weeks of release in August. The film's U.S. distributor, Miramax, looks golden after sitting on the film for more than a year.

But the soft-spoken Zhang sounds almost apologetic about his smash success.

"There's no shame anymore for an artist to make commercial films in China," Zhang said at the Toronto International Film Festival, where his new film, the kinetically dazzling "House of Flying Daggers," had its North American premiere. "When I was a fresh graduate of film school, we all wanted to make artistic movies; we're a bit snobbish in that way. We tended to look down at commercial entertainment."

This attitude took a hit four years ago, when "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" emerged from the art houses to make $128 million in the America and grab four Oscars. Hong Kong action films already were popular in the United States, but this was something different: a mythical love story with jaw-dropping sights and a beating heart. The stateside triumph of "Crouching Tiger" helped alert Asian film industries that America could be a powerful distribution market, and American audiences are reaping the rewards. The "Crouching Tiger" effect that opened the U.S. market for Zhang also has seen an unprecedented number of Asian films gaining American distribution.

This year, there have been ...