Director Xue Xiaolu.[Photo provided to China Daily]

"If you write, you will come up with some beautiful lines. You can hardly find those from just talking or sending messages on phone apps or over social media," she adds.

Xue hopes the film will also help revive moviegoers' interest in offline reading. She says the Chinese version of 84, Charing Cross Road is likely to be reprinted in the thousands as part of the film's promotion.

Alongside Macao and Los Angeles, the film has scenes in London, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Beijing and Southwest China's Sichuan province.

Xue says a replica of the London bookstore depicted in the book was built in Vancouver.

Book of Love is produced by Edko Films, a company that made China's all-time highest-grossing Monster Hunt, on a budget that's bigger than the 2013 movie's.

Other than Tang and Wu, the cast includes veteran Hong Kong actor Paul Chun and Chinese mainland actors Wang Zhiwen and Lu Yi.