A movie still for the movie "Mei Lanfang" in this Wednesday, January 23, 2008 photo. [Photo: ent.sina.com.cn]

A group of newly released stills for the bio-epic of the late Peking opera master Mei Lanfang have brought the movie back into the spotlight after the cast had been able to keep a low profile since they started filming last July.

The released scenes are mainly set on Broadway in New York City in the 1930s and were mostly shot on Dianchi Road in Shanghai, reported sina.com.cn on Wednesday.

To recreate the old style, the Shanghai government shut down the road for nine days to allow the movie cast to decorate and film. It is the longest time on record for the government to make such an exception.

The shooting crew used 10 snow makers to create a romantic snowy scene, and over 250 foreign actors were used to make the Broadway scenes as real as possible.

Aside from the director Chen Kaige; the leading actors Hong Kong star Leon Lai and mainland actor Sun Honglei also showed up in the snow scenes.

"I love the snow scene so much and I hope the audience feels the same when they watch the movie," says Leon Lai, who portrays Mei Lanfang in the movie.