"I was affected by the tale of incomplete people coming together in the quest for virtue or good ... I think that philosophy is very moving to me and it's in The Shape of Water in a way, not directly."

The movie's connection with China may be subtle, but it will be screened in China earlier than any other Oscar winners for best picture in the past 20 years. The Shape of Water (2017), is set to open across mainland theaters on Friday - just 12 days after the 90th Academy Award winners were announced on March 4.

Chinese star couple Tong Dawei and Guan Yue are working as promotional ambassadors for the film, and singer Zhou Shen released a promotional song online on Tuesday.

Set in Baltimore in 1962, the movie follows a mute cleaning woman's love for a captured amphibian creature with human looks in a high-security government laboratory. In the metaphor-studded story, some of the key characters are shown struggling on the margins of society but yearning for love and understanding.

Elisa Esposito, the cleaner, played by English actress Sally Hawkins, is isolated for being unable to speak. Her neighbor is a struggling advertisement illustrator who is despised for his sexual preference. Her best friend at the lab is a black woman suffering a loveless marriage at home and facing racial discrimination at work.