Deng's US visit

Poster of Mr. Deng Goes to Washington. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"The nine-day visit marked a historical turning point in Sino-US relations, and rewrote the global geopolitics," Fu adds.

The two attempted assassinations include one by two radical journalists at the White House when Carter met Deng, and the other by a Ku Klux Klan member, who tried to pull something from his coat as he rushed toward Deng in Houston, but was intercepted by Paul Kelly, then a US Secret Service agent.

In some scenes with no historical videos, the movie uses animations to depict Deng, the first time a cartoon has been used to show the former Chinese leader on the big screen.

Producer Lyu Muzi says the animator has created 12 cartoon scenes, with one scene depicted in the traditional Chinese shadow-puppet animation.

"We've even sent the videos to Deng's family and got a positive response from his daughter," Lyu says.

Zhu Yuchen, a 24-year-old graduate student studying animation at Beijing Film Academy, is the artist behind the animated scenes.

He says he read many historical files, including the details of dishes and table decorations, to make the images close to reality.

To show the influence of the historical visit, interviews are woven into the end of the movie from a dozen current celebrities, including Lenovo founder Liu Chuanzhi, real estate tycoon Pan Shiyi, former NBA star Yao Ming and pianist Lang Lang.

"The film means a lot to me. It's hard to imagine Sino-US relations today if the two countries hadn't established official diplomatic relations," says Lang. He adds that Western bias against Chinese artists has reduced in the past two decades, thanks to more communication after Deng's historic visit.