Dingjun Mountain, about a Peking opera routine played by Tan Xinpei, a then Peking opera star, was shot in Beijing in 1905.

    The new movie, named after the old one, portrays the entire production of Dingjun Mountain (1905) - from preparation to casting and shooting, director An Zhanjun said before Monday's premiere at the Daguanlou Cinema, where the old film also made its debut.

    The film's production missed out on video data and more historical materials, because the old film was destroyed in a fire in which only a single still featuring Xinpei survived, screenwriter Jiang Wei said.

    Yet the limitation also led to an advantage, "Since that audience has little impression on the film, the imagination we added seems more reasonable."

    She redeemed the thin historical plot that three men produced in the first film by making up a princess who returned to China after studying abroad and helped his lover, the cinematographer, finish the film.

    In the new Dingjun Mountain, Tan Xinpei was played by Tan Yuanshou, 79, Xinpei's great-grandson, also a Peking opera actor.

    "Film has been combining with Peking opera since its inception, and the film I starred in continues the marriage," he said during the premiere ceremony on Monday.

    The film, produced with 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million) by China Film Group Corporation (CFGC) and Stellar Megamedia Group in 2005 for the centennial Chinese cinema, has been invited by France and Italy to open in local Chinese cinema exhibitions, according to Shi Dongming, CFGC deputy manager.

    It will be released in China today.