In the aftermath of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake that left more than 240,000 people perished, a mother had to make a choice: save her daughter or her son. She chose her son.

The daughter was saved by foster parents but she held a grudge against her mother for the next 32 years.

So will the movie "Aftershock," about that mother's three-decade journey to an emotional reunion with the daughter she thought she had lost, become China's most commercially successful movie?

That's the hope of the movie's director, Feng Xiaogang, one of China's most successful commercial film directors.

He has said on several occasions he expects "Aftershock" to break the 500 million yuan (about 73.5 million U.S. dollars) mark at the Chinese box office.

If it does earn more than 500 million yuan, the movie will surpass the current best-selling local movie, which earned 420 million yuan, "The Founding of a Republic," a movie marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Feng's expectations sound reasonable. Although the movie's cast has no super celebrities, it's a 150 million yuan production with foreign experts behind its visual effects, post-production and miniature models of 1976 Tangshan. Also, the movie will be released in IMAX format, a first for a Chinese movie.

Most importantly, as Feng and the movie's production company put it, although the movie looks like a typical summer action-and-disaster movie, it is really a heart-touching story about family and the healing of the quake survivors' emotional wounds. But a heart-touching story can also be heart-wrenching.

At the movie's world premiere in Tangshan Monday, many in the 15,000-strong audience wiped tears away with handkerchiefs provided by sponsors.

The movie left no dry eyes in test screenings either.

"For old folks like us, the movie reminds us about the painful past," said Zhao Xicheng, a 62-year-old survivor of the Tangshan quake, at the premiere.

Li Changjun, 62, lost his then 2-year-old child in the quake. He said: "My wife could not stop crying when she saw the little girl waking up on piles of bodies in the movie's preview. We won't see the movie. It will be too painful."

For others who did not experience the quake, the pain and sadness is still a problem.

A Beijing college teacher surnamed Luo said she won't see the movie for the unbearable sadness it may bring her.

Besides, she said she would have preferred a documentary about the quake rather than a movie, because a documentary is realistic whereas a movie is an artist's recreation of the quake's aftermath.

In response to those who fear the movie will be "too tragic to watch," Li Xianping, manager of the Ziguang Theater in Beijing, said the tragedy touches the fragile part of the heart the most.

But she reassured concerned movie-goers the movie will tell the tragic story with an emphasis on family love.

She also said the movie is likely to net 500 million yuan in box office takings, citing the fact there is no strong competition and Feng's reputation for making popular movies.

Her optimism for the movie's box office was echoed by Wu Juan, the publicity manager for a major Beijing movie theater. He said Feng's new movie would definitely earn more than 500 million yuan.

"The movie will be popular because it allows people who experienced the disaster to look back and it will also attract the younger generation who want to know about the historic event," she said.

Many movie-goers interviewed by Xinhua cited the same reasons for wanting to see the movie.

Hao Shuang, a Tangshan-born college student now studying at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in central China, said he will see the movie and compare it with the stories his mother told him.

Lu Xiongyu, 24, works in a foreign company in Beijing. He said watching "Aftershock" would help him know how people lived through the disaster.

As to the sadness and pain the movie might cause, he said, "If you really want to know the disaster, you'll have to feel the agony."

Chen Shan, a professor at the Beijing Film Academy, told Xinhua in a telephone interview, "The movie will definitely be a hit."

He said most of the leading film critics and cinema mangers he had spoken with were optimistic about the box office prospects of "Aftershock." And even the usually harsh film critics praised it.

Feng himself said in an recent interview the audience may cry during the movie. But he added they will feel happy about life after they shed some tears.

In another newspaper interview, Feng said he had no intention of over-arousing audience's emotions.

"I think the majority of people who see the movie will want to see the family in the movie overcome the difficult past," he said.

"Aftershock" wil open in Chinese cinemas July 22.