A scene from the film Never Say Die [Photo/Mtime]

Never Say Die

Some of its runaway success can be attributed to an avid, pre-existing fanbase in China, developed when it began as a popular Mahua FunAge stageplay of the same name. Years of instantaneous audience feedback helped hone its robust humor to maximum effect.

Mahua FunAge, a leading theatrical troupe in China, known for its quirky humor and taking on timely issues, has staged over 1,200 performances of 15 plays and two musicals throughout China since 2003.

The play was adapted and directed for the screen by the successful writer-director comedy team, Yang Song and Chiyu Zhang, who've managed to create an adroit transition from stage to screen while displaying a firm grasp of the cinematic medium.

Comedy doesn't usually travel well. What serves up guffaws for one culture can fall on deaf ears for another. Chinese comedies are usually bewildering ciphers to American audiences and vice versa.

But Song and Zhang's layered situational-based humor and laugh-out-loud slapstick comedy give it a universal appeal that breaks those barriers.

American producer Alan Noel Vega told Xinhua, "I've been a fan of Chinese movies for over 15 years and am pleased to see how far they've come in that time. It's great to see even their comedies finding a wider international appeal."

What could easily have been yet another cliched, male-female, body-switching genre spoof turns out to be a hilarious gender-bender that transcends the genre to deliver a touching message on the power of love, loyalty and redemption.

The movie kicks off with the type of underhanded maligning of a man's character that has captivated Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice fans for over two hundred years.