BEIJING, November 2, 1997, (CNN) -- Amid a string of big-budget movies criticizing Chinese oppression, the director of "Restless" - - a Chinese-American co-production-hopes that his film will accentuate what the two countries have in common, instead of what separates them.

"Our story is very different ... more about, you know, just experimenting and trying new stuff ... selecting your values-just the process of growing up," Jule Gilfillan said.

"Restless" is the story of a twentysomething American woman and her Chinese and American friends who are living and partying together in Beijing-and trying to come to grips with adulthood.

The movie is being shot on location and actors speak a mix of English and Chinese, as the movie will be released both in China and the United States.

While U.S. actors had to forget about their Perrier and gourmetsalad habits and turn to stir fry with rice during the shooting, filming on location also entailed such challenges as crowd control.

The movie will, of course, have to pass Chinese censors, and Peter Shiao of Celestial Productions admitted that certain concession were made in light of that fact.

"There was fear that we were going to film graphic sex and we toned it down quite a bit. I mean, it was never a hard-rated film but out of considerations for the vast Chinese population we made it more of an inferential sex scene," Shiao said.

However, several recent releases about China, including "Red Corner" and "Seven Years in Tibet," are movies of a different kind.

Released earlier this month, they are aimed at intensifying public pressure on Chinese President Jiang Zemin and his communist regime's treatment of political prisoners and Tibet.

Two forthcoming dramas, Martin Scorsese's "Kundun" and the independent film "The Wind Horse," also seek to increase worldwide concern about China's occupation of the Himalayan region.

The new documentary "Free Tibet," a concert film laced with advocacy speeches, will debut in New York on November 8, but no national release plans are yet in place.

The International Campaign for Tibet said that "Seven Years in Tibet," a tale about the young Dalai Lama and China's invasion of the holy city of Lhasa, has sparked a dramatic response.

Informational pickets at movie theaters distributed tens of thousands of brochures, campaign director John Ackerly says, and visits to the organization's Web site have increased from about 500 a week to about 60,000 a week since the film premiered on October 10.

"I'm grateful for Hollywood to do projects about China," says Bai Ling, the Chinese-born co-star of "Red Corner." "Film is most effective trying to tell these stories," she says.

Some of the filmmakers say they are startled a business as often amoral as Hollywood could suddenly be thrust into a position of virtuous authority.

"What's ironic is Hollywood should not be the main voice of dissent in this country. But unfortunately, no one else is speaking out," says Jon Avnet, who directed "Red Corner," an account of an American executive (Richard Gere) framed for murder and railroaded by the Chinese judicial system. "It's sort of pathetic that serious moral issues are being raised by entertainers."

U.S. President Bill Clinton has refused demands from activists and religious leaders to link China's Most Favored Nation trade status to improvements in human rights.

Unlike "Seven Years in Tibet" and "Kundun" (due December 25), Paul Wagner's "The Wind Horse" focuses on modern Tibet and was actually shot in the country, not in a foreign locale doubling for Tibet.

"This is a movie that focuses on the value of modern Tibetan culture. And that culture is being destroyed," Wagner says.

The movie does not yet have a distributor. "I hope we're not seen as piling on. I'm not a hard-core radical on the China issue. But what annoys me is we don't speak out more."

Wagner filmed his movie guerrilla-style, with a small digital video camera during seven weeks in Tibet and Nepal. Western crews are usually denied permission to film in the country, and Avnet was forced to surreptitiously film parts of "Red Corner" in China.

Gere, a fervent Chinese critic, is banned from entering the country. The movies are coming out just as Hollywood is trying to persuade Chinese leaders to open the country to U.S. films and television shows. With domestic ticket sales and TV ratings flat, producers need new markets to improve earnings.