His experience playing an array of roles for the troupe helped him in roughly 100 Chinese-language films and in Taiwanese soap operas.

Eng was the first female director to direct Chinese-language films in the United States.

Double features became available on all days as of 1 April 1990 as the Chinese-language films were discontinued.

Yet when he sought permission to shoot his first three Chinese-language films in China, he was rebuffed.

The film was selected as one of the 100 greatest 20th-century Chinese-language films chosen by Asia Weekly.

Since 2006, Chinese-language films from Taiwan and Hong Kong are also eligible for awards.

This will be one of the most successful Chinese-language films in recent years," Kong, told AFP.

Even though the film is extraordinarily long in duration, it received much critical acclaim and now stands as one of the most successful and important Chinese-language films.

In 1999, it was chosen as one of the 100 best 20th-century Chinese-language films by Asia Weekly.

Faded from its original glory, for its last few years it was purchased and ran Chinese-language films, but in 2001 went out of business.