Young up-and-coming director Dai Wei has launched her new film "Once upon a time in Tibet/" Cast members celebrate the start of film shooting at a ceremony Tuesday in Beijing, September 22, 2009. [Xinhua/TUNGSTAR]

Young up-and-coming director Dai Wei has launched her new film "Once upon a time in Tibet" as a follow up to 2005's picturesque work "Gamlhamedog".

Cast members, including singer-actor Peter Ho, actress Song Jia and Taiwan composer Tino Bao, were all in attendance for the opening ceremony to mark the start of shooting in Beijing on Tuesday, September 22, Xinhuanet.com reports.

Set against a backdrop of China's war against Japanese aggression (1937-1945), the storyline centres on the US army bringing supplies to China by flying over the Himalayas and the love story between an American pilot named Robert and a Tibetan girl who saves his life when his airplane crashes.

Chinese singer-actor Peter Ho performs a Tibetan dance in Tibetan costume at a ceremony to celebrate the start of shooting "Once Upon a Time in Tibet" in Beijing, on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009. [Xinhua/TUNGSTAR]

Song Jia is the Tibetan girl in the film while Peter Ho will star as a handsome Tibetan hunter who mistakes the pilot for an Italian fugitive entering Tibet from India. Tino Bao, appearing for the first time on the silver screen, plays a Kuomintang official working in Tibet who vows to find the missing pilot at any cost.

"Once Upon a Time in Tibet" is the second part of Dai's "Tibet trilogy".

(CRI September 23, 2009)