Director Zhang Yimou (张艺谋) has been severely criticized for pocketing a huge amount of money and producing a poor promotional film for the Ministry of Railways.

Watch the video clip and judge for yourself whether it’s worth 18.5 million yuan ($3 million).

Bear in mind, the money is double the production cost of the comedy blockbuster Love Is Not Blind (失恋33天), and 1.5 times the expenditure of the award-winning film A Simple Life (桃姐), which features “Heavenly King” Andy Lau (刘德华) and veteran actress Deanie Ip (叶德娴).

Naturally, corruption was involved.

In an expenditure report released by China’s National Audit Office, it was revealed the Ministry of Railways did not follow public bidding regulations in 2010, but instead directly paid Yimou 18.5 million yuan for the promotional film.

After realizing the promotional film was directed by Yimou, there was an avalanche of online criticism, with many saying it could have been made for 40,000 yuan, as it used stock images and involved little actual filming.