Xue Xiaolu's latest film, Book of Love, draws inspiration from an old American book.
Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road has touched many readers over the years with its storyline－a 20-year correspondence between the American author and a London bookseller.
Now, the 1970 book has found an unusual taker in Chinese director Xue Xiaolu.
Xue's new film, Book of Love, which is a sequel to the 2013 Chinese hit Finding Mr Right, is inspired by Hanff.
The film, which opened the recent Beijing International Film Festival, will be released on the Chinese mainland on Friday.
Finding Mr Right, the Chinese equivalent of the American romance Sleepless in Seattle (1993), is the top-grossing romance of all time in Chinese film history.
Tang Wei and Wu Xiubo, who starred in Finding Mr Right, lead the sequel's cast, too.
The first film's commercial success has not only sparked a boom in similar-genre Chinese films in recent years, it has also lured a number of affluent Chinese to purchase houses in Seattle, according to media reports.
Many directors avoid making films similar to the ones they've previously made, and Xue likewise has resisted picking up her new film's plot from where the last one ends.
While in the first film, a pregnant woman traveling from Beijing to Seattle falls in love with a divorced father, the sequel tells the tale of a casino worker in Macao and a property agent in Los Angeles.
Herein lies the connection with the book 84, Charing Cross Road.
The sequel's main characters establish a correspondence. The two experience many ups and downs in their respective lives and gain courage from the letters they write to each other.
