Huang Lei's movie, What a Wonderful Family, centering on a three-generation family, is a rare small-budget Chinese film to be released abroad.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The Japanese movie was screened in China at last year's Shanghai International Film Festival, and the enthusiastic local response was what that prompted producer Gu Xiaodong to consider a Chinese version of the film.

Another reason that led Gu to think about the venture is that Yamada has many Chinese fans, thanks to his Tora-san films and the award-winning The Yellow Handkerchief.

Yamada, in a long career, has won a number of awards, including four best picture prizes from the Japanese Academy Awards.

So, Gu purchased the film rights and persuaded Huang to direct the movie, as he believed that only Huang, who has starred in dozens of family-themed productions, could capture the nuances of a family drama.

Huang, who shot to fame with Chen Kaige's art-house drama Life on a String in 1991, has acted in a number of TV series, movies and stage plays, besides reality shows.

He is also a singer, a writer, founder of a culinary startup and a popular teacher at Beijing Film Academy.

Asked why he waited so long to direct his first film, Huang, 46, says: "I wrote my first movie script at age 30, but the timing was not right then."

The script was, however, turned into Sishui Nianhua (Time Passes Like Flowing Water), a 23-episode TV series, which he directed.