LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese youth drama film "Better Days," which opened Friday in limited theatrical release in North America, may strike a chord among audiences concerned about the healthy development of teenagers and the problem of bullying at school.

"Better Days" was released by Well Go USA Entertainment in Mandarin with English subtitles in selected theaters in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and a few other major cities across the United States and Canada.

Starring actress Zhou Dongyu and the boy band TFBoys' member Jackson Yee, the film by Hong Kong director Derek Kwok-Cheung Tsang puts the spotlight on school bullying. In the film, Chinese girl Chen Nian, who is single-mindedly preparing for the national college entrance exam, becomes a target of relentless bullying and then forms a strong friendship with small-time criminal Xiao Bei; the two are dragged into a murder case of a teenage girl where they are the prime suspects.

The film has been a box-office hit in the Chinese mainland, grossing more than 1.29 billion yuan (about 184 million U.S. dollars) over the past 15 days, according to the Chinese film database Maoyan.