Director Chen Kaige at the press conference for his new movie Sacrifice. [Photo/Jiang Dong / China Daily]

Chen Kaige's holiday offering is a much-visited ancient story about a doctor and his supreme sacrifice. Liu Wei reports.

Director Chen Kaige's new film Sacrifice tells a story that goes back more than 2,000 years, about a humble doctor who sacrifices his own baby to protect an orphan from a clan of noblemen slaughtered by its rival.

While the film has elements of jealousy, conspiracy, murder and revenge, Chen focuses on the doctor.

The director of Farewell My Concubine, the 1993 Palme d'Or winner in Cannes, says he does not see the protagonist as a hero.

"He is like you and me, an ordinary person," he says.

Hence, his biggest change to the original drama - a 13th century classic by Ji Junxiang that has seen several adaptations, including one titled The Orphan of China by Voltaire the French writer and philosopher - is the examination of what motivates Cheng Ying, the doctor who protects the orphan at the expense of his own boy.

"Will people protect others' children while sacrificing their own? I don't believe this, it's not human," he says. "In this film you will see Cheng is not a hero. He is just a humble person tricked by life."

Also, Chen does not agree with the original story, in which Cheng raises the orphan as a weapon of revenge.

"If he saves a life to kill another, I would rather he never did that," Chen says.

After the failure of The Promise in 2005 and the plain Forever Enthralled, on Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang in 2008, the leading figure of China's "fifth generation" of filmmakers says his latest work comes after much reflection.

"The Promise is a work with flaws, but it is still a nice film. Forever Enthralled deals with a topic that I could not fully control. But Sacrifice is a story for which I have tried my best."

The film will face fierce competition in the upcoming festival season - the busiest time for Chinese cinemas. Christmas, the New Year and the Chinese Spring Festival make for a holiday season that sees crowds throng to the theaters and filmmakers release more of their works. But Chen hopes viewers will not be swayed too much by numbers.

"China's film industry is in rapid growth," he says. "But we focus too much on box office and marketing, while paying little attention to the films' quality. I think (the quality of) direction is more important than (its) speed."

The film has a stellar cast.

The popular Ge You, winner of the best actor award in Cannes in 1994 for Zhang Yimou's To Live, plays doctor Cheng Ying.

Acting opposite him is Wang Xueqi, who gave an impressive performance as a veteran Peking Opera singer in Chen's Forever Enthralled.

Fan Bingbing, who has just taken the best actress award at the Tokyo International Film Festival, plays the orphan's mother.

Chen praises his actors, saying they have worked hard on their roles. Wang hurt his waist practicing his equestrian skills; Fan lied on hot stones for two hours; and Ge suffered serious bouts of insomnia through the shooting.

"There are no small roles, but only small actors," Chen says. "They (Wang, Fan and Ge) are all big actors."

The film will premiere on Dec 4.