Over the past three decades, Hong Kong singer-actor Aaron Kwok has starred in more than 50 movies and has picked up more than 100 music awards.

The impressive list of characters he has portrayed on the big screen range from an upright police commissioner in the Cold War franchises to a struggling farmer living with HIV in Life Is a Miracle.

But for the superstar, who has risen to become one of the most recognized faces in Asia since his career began in the mid-1980s, portraying a revolutionary martyr in a Chinese mainland movie has been an unprecedented experience.

"I've never played a real-life person in my career before, let alone a famous historical figure. When I received the script, I read some books about him and the period that he had lived and fought through," Kwok says at the recent Beijing premiere of Eternal Wave.

A remake of a 1958 classic, Eternal Wave opened in theaters on the Chinese mainland on Nov 3, raking in 51 million yuan ($7.7 million) to top the box-office charts of domestic titles over the weekend.

Set in the late 1930s, the story centers on a Communist intelligence officer who disguises himself as a businessman to secretly establish an underground radio station in Japanese-occupied Shanghai.

The tale is based on the true story of Li Bai, a secret agent from Hunan province, who played a pivotal role in the battle of Communist intelligence agents against the invading Japanese and Kuomintang forces. He was arrested and tortured by the Kuomintang in 1948 and was killed in 1949.

Besides Kwok, the cast also features Zhao Liying, an A-list actress best known for the hit TV series The Journey of Flower; veteran Hong Kong star Simon Yam, best actor winner at the 2010 Hong Kong Film Awards; and pop idol Zhang Han.