The award-winning film director Xie Fei has slammed the decision to pull a Chinese movie from a festival in Japan, accusing its distributors of trying to profit from the nationalist fever generated by the Diaoyu Islands dispute.

Beijing Antaeus Films, a production and distribution company, issued a statement on Thursday saying it had withdrawn Feng Shui from the Tokyo International Film Festival in protest of Japan's "stubbornness" and "insincerity" in handling the dispute.

However, Xie, one of China's best-known film directors who was the artistic advisor on Feng Shui, has branded the move a publicity stunt aimed at boosting box office revenue.