The film reminded the audience of the Kashmir earthquake 2005 miseries in which about 75000 lives were lost including many children in the schools. Aftershock is the latest Chinese film that was a box office hit and presented in the Chinese Film Festival for the locals. It shows the goodwill and love of the Chinese for the Pakistanis.
The film revolves around a family that suffered agony in 1976 after earthquake in Tangshan where Yuan Ni lived in a small apartment with her husband and their twins Fang Deng and Fang Da. Yuan Ni expresses to her husband her desire to have one more child, and they get into the back of their truck after putting their son and daughter to bed. Suddenly the ground shakes, and buildings begin tumbling down. Running back to save their kids, Yuan Ni is pulled back by her husband, who runs ahead of her and is instantly crushed. Their house falls down, trapping her two kids. In the aftermath of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, a rescue team informs Yuan Ni that her twins Da and Deng are trapped together under a slab of concrete. Lifting the slab in any way will kill one of her children - lifting it one way will save the daughter at the expense of her son; lifting it the other will save the son at the expense of her daughter.
Heartbroken, she is forced to choose between her children, and finally decides to save the boy. Her decision, however, is overheard by her daughter, who tearfully whispers “Ma...” as the scene ends.
Directed by Feng Xiaogang, the film was released on July 22, 2010 and it cost about $25 million. The main cast includes Zhang Jingchu, Chen Daoming, Lu Yi, Xu Fan, Zhang Guoqiang and Li Chen. The film was produced by HuaYi Bros., which partnered with IMAX to produce three Chinese films of which ‘Aftershock’ is the first. Aftershock was released in over 5000 conventional and 14 IMAX theatres in late July. In early August 2010, the film surpassed The Founding of a Republic as the highest-grossing locally-made film in China, with a RMB532 million gross.