Movie director Chen Kaige's latest epic film Sacrifice hit theatres on December 4.

The film is adapted from the 2,000-year-old story The Orphan of the Zhao Family, which features jealousy, murder and revenge. Cheng Ying, the hero, sacrificed his own baby son to save hundreds of other babies. The story was once dramatized by French writer and philosopher Voltaire as The Orphan of China.

"It is a classical tragedy, known to Chinese and many foreigners. I didn't want to make the film sound too sophisticated. The purpose of the production is simply to share a good story," Chen said.

As a leading figure of the prestigious "fifth generation" of filmmakers who began their careers in the early 1980s and are the mainstay of China's film industry, Chen, 58, is the earliest of Chinese directors to achieve international recognition. His Farewell My Concubine won the top award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993. Other notable works by Chen include Yellow Earth (1984), The Emperor and the Assassin (1999), The Promise (2005) and Forever Enthralled (2008).