Undying spirit

"I was able to talk to colleagues and friends of Anita Mui and the makeup artists I worked with for this film had worked with Anita in real life," Wong said. "So while I was shooting, we talked about how Anita was like. Listening to all those stories really helped me perform the role."

Likewise, Leung sought out those who knew Mui for insights into her personality, and advice on how they thought she should be portrayed. In the end, he said, the production team — led by the veteran hitmaker producer Bill Kong Chi-keung (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) — set out with three distinct goals.

For one, it was important to not upset Mui's older generation of fans in any way. The second was to inspire those familiar with Mui's story to want to revisit her works. And the third was to encourage the young generation to discover Mui's works.

"You know while I was developing this story, I interviewed many close friends of ours and strangely there was something common — they were not sorry. Every time we talked about Anita, they said that Anita never left us," Leung said.