Nostalgia spells success

Youth has raked in 480 million yuan since being released on Dec 15, and could be a big winner for Feng Xiaogang. Xu Fan reports.

Director Feng Xiaogang - who started the concept of Chinese New Year hits - is celebrating a new triumph. His latest film Youth, a bittersweet tale that chronicles the lives of several members of a Chinese military art troupe from the 1970s to the 1990s, has raked in 480 million yuan ($73 million) since being released on Dec 15, topping the country's box-office charts.

Most analysts predict the movie, scripted by Chinese-American Yan Geling, will become the highest-grossing film of Feng's film career spanning three decades.