[Photo provided to China Daily]

Director Feng Xiaogang's new film Youth recalls his time in a military opera troupe. Xu Fan reports.  

For most youngsters, the screening hall of the 1954-built Beijing Exhibition Center may be too old to create a comfortable environment for watching movies.

But director Feng Xiaogang insisted on holding the opening ceremony of his upcoming movie Youth in the theater on Dec 6, describing the venue as the artistic cradle that inspired his cinematic dreams.

"Around 50 years ago, I watched a number of shows and movies in this theater. Now I return here with the cast of Youth, hoping the place where my dream began will help Youth sail further," says the director.

A nostalgia for the past similarly pervades the movie, a coming-of-age drama plotting the ups and downs of a group of singers and dancers in a Chinese military art troupe between the 1970s and 1990s.

After a two-month halt from its previously scheduled release date of Sept 29, the 136-minute feature will simultaneously open in China and North America on Dec 15.

For the 59-year-old director, whose name has become synonymous with the lucrative Chinese New Year blockbusters thanks to a string of hits since 1997's The Dream Factory, Youth is somewhat of a radical departure.