Poster of upcoming film The Ark of Mr. Chow. Photo provided to China Daily

In 1985, Xi'an Jiaotong University launched a program to recruit gifted teenagers to study in the university before they had even finished high school.

These youngsters were all extremely academically talented, but they found the social side of university difficult. They were dealing with the stress of puberty and their schoolmates were much older than them.

Three decades later, one of the graduates of that program draws on his experiences as a teenage university student for his upcoming film, The Ark of Mr. Chow.

Xiao Yang, a famous film editor who has worked on many blockbusters, including You are the One and Detective D, was selected for the special class for gifted youth at Xi'an Jiaotong University at age 15 and became a student in the architecture department at 16.

"My film wants to tell a special tale of growing pains. All the characters (five gifted teenagers who have been selected for early university entry who are training for a world mathematics competition) are geniuses, but facing embarrassing moments in daily life," said the newbie director and veteran film editor, at a media event to promote the movie on March 20.