5 Jul - A five-minute promotional movie for the Ministry of Railways China, directed by famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, has outraged local citizens as the film cost the taxpayers RMB 18.5 million (SGD 3.7 million).

However, the ministry told the reporter that the film had "failed to achieve its desired effects" because few people had even seen the film.

It is known that Zhang was invited by the ministry to produce a promotional film for them and reportedly received a salary of RMB 8.5 million (SGD 1.7 million) from the ministry, according to Chinese media.

Chinese paparazzi had also managed to capture a photo of Zhang driving a white Porsche car worth RMB 2 million (SGD 400k) and living in a mansion worth about RMB 1 billion (SGD 20 million).

Since the promotional film had gone viral online, Chinese Netizens were outraged by the film which they described as "rubbish". Some Netizens questioned the huge amount of taxpayers' money to produce such an "unnecessary film".

Zhang soon replied that he was "just a nominal director" for the film, who only gave his suggestions to the ministry and was not directing the whole film.