30 Seconds to Mars have enjoyed a breakthrough year in more than one respect. In addition to going platinum with the album 'A Beautiful Lie,' winning multiple awards and headlining sold-out tours, the quartet recently became the first American rock act to film a video in China, for the track 'From Yesterday.'

Frontman Jared Leto says he's felt the pull of the Far East for a long time. "I've always had a very strong interest in Asian culture," he says. "It always struck a deep chord in me, and some of my favorite films are Kurosawa's 'Kagemusha' and 'Ran,' and Bertolucci's 'The Last Emperor.' And I thought that the passion of the people, the history and the culture would be a really strong foundation for the song."

Though the video, which he calls "a foreign film," has been well received, Leto says the experience of filming in China is more than its own reward. "The country is exploding in a lot of different ways, and it was certainly unforgettable to go over there and have this experience," he says. "And certainly we went over there and came back slightly changed as a result. It was exciting, educational, eye-opening in many different ways, and we definitely benefited from enormously from the cultural exchange that happened."

Taken from AOL