Fellow stars including Liu Ye and Li Bingbing, and director Lou Ye, will also be invited to the premiere, which will hopefully be held at the end of July, said Shanghai Film Studio, the movie's producer, yesterday.

No exact date or venue has been selected because the studio is looking for a time suitable for all guests.

"The film shows unique features of director Lou, one of the so-called sixth-generation directors," said Wu Hehu, marketing director of Shanghai United Cinema Line.

"The cast enjoys a great number of fans in the city. Though the plot was set in olden times, moviegoers will go to the cinema to only watch the stars."

Wu said that DVD copies of the film are likely to be available at the same time as the film screening.

With a 15 million yuan (US$1.8 million) investment by the studio, "Purple Butterfly" gathered Chinese and Japanese artists, including Zhang, Liu, Feng Yuanzheng and Toru Nakamura.

The story takes place in the early 1930s. Ding Hui (Zhang Ziyi) witnesses her brother murdered by Japanese extremist and becomes a member of Purple Butterfly, a resistance group. The group assassinates the head of Japanese secret agency. Itami (Toru Nakamura), a member of the service and Ding's former lover, was on the assassinated man's staff.

After finishing in April, the film was sent to France for the Cannes Film Festival, but failed to win a prize.

"That doesn't matter," said Wu. "Different countries have different tastes and trends. Even in the same country, different judges have different preferences. So participation in the festival was the top priority of the film."

(eastday.com June 21, 2003)