The final length of this film with 172 star actors was determined to be 140 minutes. It was rumored that the "actor" John Woo's all scenes were deleted due to time issues, and he ultimately made a fleeting appearance in the film. The news about Tang Wei's "unbanned" performance proved to be purely hearsay.
After the preview screening, what was most talked about in the industry was that the long-absent Stephen Chow actually played Zhou Zuoren - Lu Xun's second younger brother in "The Founding of A Republic". This unexpected discovery excited many people in the film industry, who joked that box office earnings of 200 million yuan or 300 million yuan would just be the "starting point" for the movie. With so many big names joining, it might easily rewrite the box office record of Chinese films after its release on September 17th.