Han Entertainment's The Touch, produced by and starring Michelle Yeoh, topped the box office in all four Asian territories in which it opened over the weekend.

The $20m romantic action drama, directed by Peter Pau, opened Thursday, August 1, in Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore.

In Hong Kong, where Golden Harvest is handling distribution, the film grossed $570,500 (HK$4.45m) over the four-day weekend from 39 screens. It finished ahead of Stuart Little 2 which came in second with $496,150 (HK$3.87m) from 47 screens.

In Singapore, The Touch beat both Signs and Austin Powers In Goldmember to the top spot with a four-day take of $296,400 (S$525,000) from 32 screens. In Malaysia it grossed $196,150 (745,000 ringgits) from 33 screens.

Golden Harvest's joint venture with Village Roadshow, Golden Village, is handling the film in Singapore, while Golden Screen Cinemas, a joint venture between GH and the Kuok Group, is distributing in Malaysia.

The film also performed strongly in China where it clinched pole position with $923,100 (yuan 7.64m) from 162 screens.

"This shows that day and date releasing is the most effective way to tackle the China market," said executive producer and Han CEO Thomas Chung. "It wasn't easy to co-ordinate but has definitely paid off. The pirate discs didn't start to appear until the fourth or fifth day of release."

Han is distributing The Touch directly in China, in partnership with private distributor Beijing Bona Cultural Exchange Co.