'Back to 1942' to open cinemas' busy season

Famed Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's blockbuster "Back to 1942," starring American actor Tim Robbins, will debut on November 29, officials with Huayi Brothers Media Group, the film's investor, said on Monday.

The epic is widely expected to raise the curtain for the upcoming prime pre-Lunar New Year film season in the nation.

Costing 210 million yuan (about 33.6 million U.S. dollars), the blockbuster depicts a tragic drought which claimed about three million lives in central China's Henan Province in 1942.

The period from late December to early February is usually the busiest time of the year for China's box office, holding the premieres of many domestic films.

But the season has been stretched to begin in late November over the past few years as more and more films are screened in the period to compete for their share of China's growing box office.

Box office sales totaled 1.28 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2012, up 41.7 percent year on year, with imported movies taking in three-fifths of the revenues.

Feng's film, which also stars Chinese actors Zhang Guoli and Chen Daoming, is based on a novel written by Liu Zhenyun.

It will be challenged by blockbusters including director Lu Chuan's epic "Wang De Sheng Yan," or "The Last Supper," and the biopic and action film "The Grandmasters" by director Wong Kar-wai.

The former is set to debut on Nov. 29, while the latter will hit the screens on Dec. 18, according to popular movie website douban.com.

Feng has been one of the most successful Chinese directors for commercial movies. His "Jia Fang Yi Fang," or "The Dream factory" in 1997, was the first film produced for the Lunar New Year film season. It took about 36 million yuan at cinemas.