Space odyssey

Starring Shen as the stranded maintenance man, the 122-minute Moon Man marks the longest and even the "loneliest" movie Shen has shot during his career spanning nearly 20 years.

"I shot the movie for nearly five months, spending most of my time in soundstages with the walls covered by green cloth (a practice to replace backdrops)," Shen says.

The majority of the film's around 1,800 special effects scenes were made by artists from More VFX, a visual effects company known for The Wandering Earth and A Writer's Odyssey. The shooting lasted nearly five months in 15 soundstages which covered an area of 40,000 square meters in Qingdao, Shandong province, according to the producers.

Shen says he was very excited to meet Ma, the lead actress, during the shooting.