China's domestic movie market raked in 3.32 billion yuan ($514 million) in box office revenue last week (October 4-10), the best return since the previous big holiday, the Chinese New Year, ended in mid-February, according to the online movie-ticketing platform Maoyan.

The week-long National Day holiday, one of the most lucrative for cinemas, took in 4 billion yuan in ticket sales, the second highest for the period, behind only 2019, the year before the pandemic.

Chinese war epic "The Battle at Lake Changjin" dominates the field, garnering 2.58 billion yuan last week, Maoyan shows. The film's total box office amounted to 4.2 billion yuan as of Monday, the 12th day of its screening.

Following behind is another film with a patriotic theme, "My Country, My Parents," which raked in 595 million yuan last week.

Read more: China's 2021 box office total breaks 40 billion yuan

Spy thriller 'Saturday Fiction' to hit big screens 

"Saturday Fiction," a black and white spy thriller directed by Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye, is scheduled to be released nationwide on October 15.

Starring world-famous actress Gong Li and actor Mark Chao, the movie was adapted from the novels "Death in Shanghai" by Chinese writer Hong Ying and "Shanghai" by Japanese author Yokomitsu Riichi.

Set in the city of Shanghai in 1941, it tells the story of Jean Yu (played by Gong), a popular actress who returns to Shanghai to act in the play "Saturday Fiction" at the city's Lyceum Theater. Yet, her real identity is a spy working for the Allies. She receives information about Japan's plan to attack Pearl Harbor in the U.S. state of Hawaii and finds herself enveloped in a web of mistrust. 

The film was nominated for the Golden Lion Award at the 76th Venice International Film Festival in 2019. It was selected as the closing film at the 11th Beijing International Film Festival, where Gong served as jury president.

Read more: BJIFF: CMG's exclusive interview with actress Gong Li

(With input from agencies)

(Cover image by Li Wenyi)