"It didn't matter if the film was an Italian or American version - both revealed the typical social issues of their times, like the generation gap and young people's painstaking efforts to start their careers," says Zhang Meng, director of the new film.

Zhang, 40, says he will introduce common problems confronted by today's Chinese people in the film to give it more local flavor. He is known for his award-winning The Piano in a Factory (2010), another touching story of a father-daughter relationship.

Ma says he made the choice because "Zhang is good at using the true face of ordinary Chinese people to touch the audience."

"The father figure in the film will be a typical Chinese father, which I believe will remind moviegoers of their own," Zhang says, adding that he doesn't worry such a story from the West will encounter any cultural shock in adaption.

Nevertheless, the father in the film, actor Zhang Guoli, says that he was reluctant to participate in such a film at first.

"Today's ostentatious Chinese film market is a little bit sick, and I really worried if such a film with a peaceful tone would be able to win its position in the box office," Zhang Guoli says, adding that a public-service TV advertisement sharing a similar theme changed his mind.

"When traditional family emotions become more and more unfamiliar for Chinese people, we have to get them back," the veteran actor says. "So, we need a film that doesn't intend to catch a fad."

Popular young-generation actors Yao Chen, Shawn Dou, Ye Yiyun and Chen He will play his four children in the film.