A ceremony marking the official start of the shooting of the film Beautiful Life (Mei Li Ren Sheng) was held in Beijing on Wednesday. Director Andrew Lau, 38th Golden Horse best actor Liu Ye, and 42nd Golden Horse best actress Fanny Shu attended the event, Oriental Morning Post reports. 

Produced by the Bona International Film Group, Lau spent two years writing the script and wanted to make a film on the concept of love with tension. "It's just a way of packaging regardless if the film is about action or romance. The most important thing is to convey the inner emotions of a film," Lau said.

This is the third time actor Liu and actress Shu have appeared together in a film since they first worked together in the 2003 romance The Foliage and later in the Gun-Fu 2007 action drama Blood Brothers. The main difference with this film, unlike the others, is it has a happy ending, said the director. 

Former Chinese Olympic diving champion Tian Liang, who left the sport to pursue acting, was also in attendance. In the film he portrays a young man who suffers from autism. 

Andrew Lau is a Hong Kong filmmaker and cinematographer. He is an expert of the crime genre, making such films including Young and Dangerous, As Tears Go By and the internationally acclaimed Infernal Affairs trilogy. The first installment was later remade by Martin Scorsese in 2006 as The Departed, starring Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg.

He also made a few romantic films packaged as crime stories, such as Confession of Pain and Daisy.