2010-07-14 08:00

Zhang Jingchu, Chen Daoming, Feng Xiaogang, Xu Fan and Li Chen (back row from left to right), Zhang Zifeng and Zhang Jiajun (front row from left to right) pose at a press conference of the movie Aftershock in Beijing on Tuesday. [China Daily]

BEIJING - Director Feng Xiaogang is known as a comedy master, but his latest disaster film proves that he is also a master of tragedy.

Feng is a frequent box office champion with his comedies on urban life, but his latest movie Aftershock features the Tangshan earthquake that claimed around 240,000 lives in 1976.

The film, which will hit cinemas nationwide on July 22, had a premiere ceremony on Monday in Tangshan in North China's Hebei province where the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck 34 years ago.

About 10,000 locals watched the IMAX version of the film in Tangshan Stadium, with many in tears.

Heavy rain fell soon after the ceremony ended at the midnight and it rained during the rehearsal on Sunday night, but during the four-hour ceremony there was no rain at all.

"It was like the 240,000 spirits were blessing us," Feng told a press conference on Tuesday in Beijing. "The ceremony would have been a mess if it rained."

However, the rain did destroy the screen, claimed to be the biggest in the world by the production company. The 33-meter-long and 15-meter-high screen was supposed to be divided into four parts and re-used in theaters later.

After the screening, Feng proposed two toasts. The first was to those who lost their lives in the disaster, the second to the survivors and rescuers.

Feng said he was nervous presenting the work to Tangshan people and asked the audience if it was good enough. The viewers all stood up and gave him a warm "Yes!"

On Monday afternoon, Feng led his cast in laying flowers in front of the Tangshan Earthquake Memorial Wall, which bears the names of those who died in the disaster.

The film, which costs about 100 million yuan ($15 million), focuses on the psychological aftershock the disaster imposes on a mother who has to choose between saving her son or daughter.

"Many directors hope their films are epics, but I would rather capture the fate of ordinary people," Feng says.

Many extras in the film were survivors of the earthquake. In one scene of locals burning mock paper money for the dead on the streets 10 years after the earthquake, Feng told them to talk about anything they liked to their dead loved ones. It proved very emotional and many could not stop talking and crying even after the shooting ended.

"The film moves many, because the earthquake was real and more importantly, the feeling inside is real," Feng says.