Director Xu Jinglei is exploring less experimental and more commercial territory. Sun Li reports.

Director Xu Jinglei stepped out of the art house and explored commercial filmmaking territory with her 2010 romantic comedy, Go Lala Go!. It was a box-office triumph that simultaneously subverted her signature avant-garde style and demonstrated her directorial dexterity. Xu will bring the second act of her commercial endeavors this year with Dear Enemy. Despite centering on workplace romance like Go Lala Go!, Xu says Dear Enemy is her first entertainment-oriented directorial work tinged with suspense and aiming to excite audiences at every twist and turn.

"Go Lala Go! delved into office politics and made people laugh, but essentially it was not a purely entertaining film. It's a bildungsroman," the actress-turned-director explains.

"This time, I want to present a fully entertaining film, which is plot-driven and awash with delicious surprises."

Set in the competitive world of investment banking, Dear Enemy revolves around a separated couple, who, as individuals, seek to outdo and outsmart each other in a business acquisition.

"If Go Lala Go! tells a fairytale about white-collar workers, Dear Enemy is a story about gold-collar workers," Xu says.

"It's an upgraded version of Go Lala Go!."

Xu says the film cost 50 million yuan ($7.89 million) - the highest investment of her directorial career.

The production crew chose London as one of the major exterior sites, and shot glitzy sceneries, including the Thames River, St James's Park, and London Eye.

"By filling the film with those eye-pleasing scenes, I hope to ensure audiences feel it's worth buying the ticket," Xu says.

Although her last film zoomed in on office workers' lives, Xu is not personally familiar with the workplace situations of investment bankers.

It took her a year to work on the script while ensuring its accuracy. She also received consultation from a friend who had more than a decade of experience in investment banking.

"I also interviewed many investment bank executives and learned from them about their work procedures and such issues as initial public offerings (IPOs) and mergers and acquisitions," Xu says.

"Although my objective is to create a highly entertaining film, I don't want to exaggerate and distort the realities of the investment banking world."

But while working to stay true to these realities, she invented drama with the potentially risky move of turning the vibrantly colorful film's trailer into a black-and-white short.

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"It was an audacious move - turning the trailer of a cosmopolitan drama laden with fashionable elements into black-and-white," Xu says.

"But it seems to bear an undertone of menace and conspiracy, which was very cool."