A poster for the film The Chinese Widow shows a character standing beside an old wall in Qinchuan village, Chun'an county, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to ezhejiang.gov.cn]

The Chinese Widow, a fact-based war drama telling the touching story of a group of US soldiers and Zhejiang people in the 1940s, was released on Nov 10.

Directed by Bille August, whose 1987 film Pelle the Conqueror won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, The Chinese Widow stars Liu Yifei and Emile Hirsch and is a co-production of Roc Pictures and Qiandaohu Tourism Group, two Zhejiang culture companies.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, then US president Franklin Roosevelt made plans to bomb Tokyo as a boost for US morale. Lacking fuel after the completion of their mission, bombardiers bailed from their planes along the coast near Zhejiang in East China. A young local widow named Ying risked her life to save that of pilot Jack Turner, hiding him in her house and employing her fellow villagers' help to finally return him home.

The film's story exemplifies the perseverance and unity of Chinese people when facing severe challenges, while also functioning as an illustration of early cooperation and understanding between Chinese and US people.

The production team spent four years crafting the screenplay. To have a better understanding of the events, August visited Zhejiang on more than 20 occasions to conduct research and scout shooting locations. Major scenes of The Chinese Widow were shot in Qinchuan village, Chun'an county, while the heroine's wardrobe employs Chun'an's traditional embroidery patterns.

Though crew members and characters come from different cultures and live in different countries, their aspirations for love are the same, August said, adding that a good film should have artistic elements and humane implications.

Sun Peng, chairman of Roc Pictures, said films are not only entertainment but also a way to emotionally move audiences. "The film is furthering the international platform for Chinese stories," he said, promising that the company will work to encourage more international cooperation in the future.

World War II drama The Chinese Widow premieres in Zhejiang's capital, Hangzhou. [Photo provided to ezhejiang.gov.cn]