Shooting began on 1 July 2020 and took place in Shanghai and finished filming on November 5 of that same year.[5]Zheng Shuang, who played Xiang Jingyu, was removed from the film for surrogacy scandal; Yan Xujia's role was removed after rumors Yan had cheated on his girlfriend.[6]
According to the China Movie Data Information Network, the film took 81.60 million yuan ($12.6 million) on its opening day, and 44.2 million yuan the next day. The film earned a total of 300 million yuan ($46.32 million) in its first four days of release.[7]
^"A Chinese film removes scenes featuring a young Mao Zedong". The Economist. July 2021. Archived from the original on July 8, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2021. But a few months before the film's release on July 1st, reports appeared on entertainment news sites that Mr Yan had cheated on a girlfriend. He denied this, but disbelieving internet users said he was unfit to play a character as important and upstanding as Mao.