He said the real lesson was that so much money could be spent on a movie.

"Without money, you don't have good quality; without quality, you cannot face the audience. Either you have lots of money or very little money because it's painful to be stuck in the middle." (Rogue One has a production budget of $200 million.)

Jiang thinks it "too much" that China's film industry is constantly being compared with Hollywood.

"When the American cowboys were fighting, we were still in the Qing Dynasty, men with ponytails."

But he did say that the use of English can partially explain the global appeal of some of the Hollywood fare.

When probed about his controversial remark on the importance of "aircraft carriers", which he was credited as an explanation for Hollywood's global clout, Jiang again took a contrarian route. Instead of clarifying his position, he simply says: "If the newspapers wanted to gain more readers by quoting me out of context, it is their thing."

Like Jiang, director Edwards refused to elucidate the relationship between Malbus, Jiang's role, and Chirrut Imwe, Yen's role, which is interpreted by some in China and other parts of the world as a potentially homosexual one.

Both are rebel warriors and cover each other in situations of life and death, very much like the ancient heroes in China and Japan.

The old generation would not think twice before taking a line like "I don't need good luck. I have you." as a sign of simple male bonding.

But today's young tend to read more into it. Fan drawings of the duo in various poses of intimacy have popped up online, eliciting laughs and hopefully more fascination in the Star Wars phenomenon as the franchise gradually gains traction in China.

By Monday, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story had grossed $500 million in the US and slightly less in other markets, including 363 million yuan on the Chinese mainland, according to Box Office Mojo and the Chinese box-office tracking site Movieticket.

Contact the writer at raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn