Director Jiang Wen(L) waves his hand while walking on the red carpet with actress Zhou Yun (R) at the world premiere of "Gone with the Bullets" in Beijing, capital of China, on Dec 15, 2014. World premiere of director Jiang Wen's new movie "Gone with the Bullets" was held in Beijing yesterday. [Photo/Xinhuanet.com]

Given all the high anticipation, the film was quite a letdown. After the movie ended and the credits started rolling, some audience members whispered that they didn't like or understand the movie. There was indeed another round of applause, but it was lukewarm and less loud than the applause that echoed at the beginning of the film.

Soon, social media exploded with a profusion of negative comments from viewers who attended the event, contrasting with the previous rave reviews issued a week ago by Jiang's friends and collaborators in showbiz.

"Zhang Yimou has a film called 'A Simple Noodle Story,' Feng Xiaogang has a film called 'Personal Tailor,' Chen Kaige has a film called 'The Promise,' and now Jiang Wen has a film called 'Gone with the Bullets,'" one blogger wrote, referring to the most famous Chinese directors' worst works.

The film, which has huge ambitions to set new standards and box office records in Chinese movie history, will be hitting Chinese cinemas nationwide on Dec 18. The producers said the film had already grossed nearly 300 million yuan (US$48.41 million) in Internet presales before its official nationwide debut.