Renowned Chinese director Chen Kaige's upcoming film Mei Lanfang began shooting in mid-July, shored up by investments from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Boasting a budget of $15 million, the movie is set to be released in 2008 as part of the cultural offerings during the Beijing Olympics build-up. A biographical tale of the late Peking Opera star, it already has an aura of grand cinema about it. Chen said he wants to present the inner world and the powerful personality of the master performer, and not only his artistic achievements.

Chen's filmmaking skills are best known to Western audiences for his direction of Farewell My Concubine and The Promise.

Hong Kong movie star and pop singer Leon Lai was selected from hundreds of hopefuls to play middle-aged Mei, while the most visible Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, who shot to fame in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, will play Mei's fellow singer, Meng Xiaodong.

Much preparation has gone into the movie being authentic as far as possible. A lot of the important scenes will be shot in a replica of Beijing's Jixiang Theater, specially built in a studio in Beijing at a cost of 4 million yuan (about $530,000). It is said that many prominent Peking operas stars, including Mei, performed at the original Jixiang Theater, which was built in 1906.

Mei Baojiu, Master Mei's youngest son, a prominent Peking Opera singer who has inherited his father's operatic skills, is instrumental in researching biographical data, records and archival film footage for the film. His greatest hope is that this background information can help the director capture the spirit and soul of his father, which he said is all about dedication to the art, kindness to others and developing and spreading Peking Opera to the world. His "beauty and sincerity" need to shine through, said Mei.

This need to put across the inner personality of a cultural icon was uppermost in Chen's mind when he chose Leon Lai for the part.

Despite concerns in Peking Opera circles that Lai is too tall and does not bear any resemblance to Mei, Chen believes he made the right choice.

"I choose actors or actresses by intuition. I feel that Lai is a quiet person and the humbleness and politeness that Master Mei possessed can also be found in him," Chen told media in Beijing.

Born in Beijing, Lai speaks Mandarin and has quickly taken to training for the role under the guidance of Mei Baojiu and other Peking Opera teachers.

Lai said the most difficult part of the role is not the musical and stage aspects, but tapping into the tranquil character of the master performer in order to bring the most glamorous Peking Opera star in the world to life for millions of movie goers worldwide.

Legendary Life Born in Beijing in 1894, Mei was one of Four Great Famous Opera Female Roles in China. As a son and grandson of noted opera singers, Mei began studying Peking Opera at eight and made his debut at 12. He was considered to have carried forward the tradition of males depicting female characters in Peking Opera. During his stage life, he embellished the traditions of the past with his own creations, shaping a unique style and giving birth to the Mei Lanfang School. But even Mei himself admitted that he was never a student of great natural talent. His teacher said he showed little promise because of his lack-luster eyes. To remedy this, he exercised them relentlessly. He would practice gazing at the movements of an incense flame in a dark room; fly kites and stare at them drifting in a blue sky; and keep pigeons in order to look at them soaring higher and higher until they disappeared into the clouds. Thanks to his efforts, he managed to transform his dull peepers into a pair of bright, keen, highly expressive eyes and win national fame before the age of 20. The beauty of China's Peking Opera was made known to the rest of the world through Mei's enthusiastic efforts. He toured Japan twice (1919 and 1924), the United States once (1930) and the Soviet Union twice (1932 and 1935). Although he is not the first person to perform Peking Opera overseas, he is the first to make Western art circles sit up and take notice of China's traditional opera and recognize it as an art form in its own right. American art critics commented that the East and the West had never met until they were perfectly combined in Mei's performance. In the Soviet Union, he won the praise of such dramatic heavyweights as Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vsevolod Meyerhold. After the outbreak of China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression in 1937, he settled in Hong Kong. He then returned to Shanghai. During that time he refused to perform for the occupying Japanese army, only renewing his stage career after the end of the war in 1945. His representative works were Drunken Beauty, King Xiang Yu Bids Farewell to His Beloved, Beauty Defies Tyranny and Mu Guiying Takes Command. He also published a book Collected Works of Mei Lanfang and an autobiography Forty Years of My Stage Life. He died in 1961 from heart disease, arguably the best known of all Peking Opera stars--both in China and the rest of the world.

ABC of Peking Opera Peking opera, originated in the late 18th century, is a synthesis of stylized action, singing, dialogue and mime, acrobatic fighting and dancing to represent a story or depict different characters and their feelings. It is the most influential and representative of all operas in China. In Peking opera, there are four main types of roles: sheng (male), dan (young female), jing (painted face, male) and chou (clown, male or female). The characters may be loyal or treacherous, beautiful or ugly, good or bad, their images being vividly manifested. Peking Opera can be divided into "civil" pieces characterized by singing and "martial" ones featuring acrobatics and stunts. Some repertoires are a combination of both. Peking Opera has chang (singing), nian (dialogue), zuo (acting) and da (martial arts) as its basic performing forms. The operatic dialogues and monologues are recited in Beijing dialect, and some of the words are pronounced in a special fashion, unique to the opera. The melody with its harmonious rhythms has a graceful quality. The colorful costumes are hand embroidered using traditional Chinese patterns resulting in garments of high aesthetic value. One of the most well-known aspects of Peking Opera is the facial make-up, which is rich and varied, depicting different characters and remarkable images. The stage of Peking Opera has no limit in space or time. Each action of a performer is highly symbolic. It can be the setting for any action. Gestures, and various kinds of body movements, can portray and symbolize the actions of opening a door, climbing a hill, going upstairs or rowing a boat. When a girl is doing needlework, she has neither a needle nor thread in her hands. When a lady is riding in a carriage, the performer actually has to walk flanked on each side by a flag with colored tassels. Four generals and four soldiers represent an army of thousands.