"The Titanic" is back. Hollywood filmmakers raised the ghost ship from the deep, dark sea. Restoring the luxury liner to its former glory, adding a dash of modern-day romance, they sailed the gigantic ship again, conquering America, Europe, Asia. Everywhere, "Titanic" is simply irresistible.

China has been no exception. "Titanic" first docked in Beijing in April.

Two months earlier, an intense promotional campaign had already been launched. TV and radio stations, newspapers and magazines, all issued reports on the film. Eye-catching posters cropped up in subways and on buses. People's expectations rose higher and higher. Eighteen first-rate theaters in Beijing got the priority to show the film on April 9, one week earlier than other theaters. Ticket prices weren't in the steerage class; some went as high as 50, the most any Beijing had ever been asked to pay to see as movie. It didn't matter; tickets sold out as quickly as they were put on sale.

Primed by the media and swept away by the movie, audiences responded strongly. For weeks, everywhere you went in the capital you heard people talking about the film. The word-of-mouth continues to build; five months after the promotional campaign kicked off, and three months after "Titanic" first steamed into Beijing movie theaters' harbors, the story of Rose and Jack and an iceberg in the Atlantic is still a hot topic in bars and breakrooms.

"I can identify a lot with Jack though the story is set in the 1920s," said 24-year-old Lu Jun who just graduated from college and is about to enter the working worl. "Jack has nothing, but he is free from the bondage of money or class. I admire the freedom he possesses."

"It is a moving story," said Ma Yuan, a 20-year-old college student. She said that her cousin went to see the film three times. "She burst into tears each time she saw the movie."

Zhu Lei, a high school student, also cried while watching the film. "I couldn't hold my tears whenever the music of the title song was on. But I didn't cry for the romance. To me, that's nothing unusual, just like other love stories.

"It's the people, their behavior as they face death, that touched my heart greatly."

Beijing Broadcasting and TV Guide set up a column calling for audiences' comments on "Titanic." Among the more than 200 articles they received, 90 percent were positive about the film.

However, some icebergs lurk in the watery hearts of Beijing movie-goers.

"What are these tears shed for?" questioned Yu Jie in his article "The Last Myth," which was published in Beijing Youth Weekly. Yu is a graduate student in the Chinese Literature Department of Peking University. "For the love story? It's no more than a Cinderella clich?.

"Besides, people's compassion starts to die away as soon as the movie ends and the lights come up in the theater. They go back to reality, where money is almighty and love is fragile. No miracle occurs in real life.

"The film mocks the gilded world so many pursue. It tries to convince its audience that money is useless.Money can neither buy love nor fight against natural disaster. But ironically, the film has, so far, brought in more than $10 billion, making much greater profits than any other film."

Indeed, partly because of its record-setting ticket price, "Titanic" has brought in the highest ticket income ever recorded by a movie in Beijing. By early May, it had earned 8,000,000 ($3,373,494). Apart from the salee of tickets and advertisements shown before each showing of the film, "Titanic" has spun off many by-products.

Among these lucrative also-sellers: the VCDs and cassettes of the film, the CDs and tapes of its sound track and Celine Dion's title song, and everything -- watches, T-shirts, postcards, stationery, lunch boxes -- printed with the images of young lovers Jack and Rose (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet). All churning out merchandising money based on a movie that says money isn't everything.

"Once again, Hollywood has told an old story vividly, and made billions within a few months in many countries. Now it is sticking its hands into our pockets," said Zhong Dafeng, vice professor of the Beijing Film Institute. "Anyway, that's what the entertainment business is all about. Go and see for yourself."