SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — A harrowing drama about school bullying has struck a strong personal chord with Chinese cinema audiences and soared to the top of the box office, after authorities belatedly gave it the go-ahead.

“Better Days” shines a spotlight on what the state-run China Daily called “a nationwide problem which has existed for years” but is rarely broached in Chinese films.

A real-life case went viral this week about a seven-year-old girl who needed hospital treatment after a group of fellow pupils forced scraps of paper into her eyes.

“Better Days” has grossed at least 1.4 billion yuan ($200 million) in the nearly three weeks since its release, according to the China Movie Data Information Network.

Starring Zhou Dongyu and Jackson Yee, two popular figures in Chinese cinema, the film is based on a novel and tells the story of a teenage girl who teams up with a school drop-out to protect her from bullies.

The girl’s plight has left cinema-goers deeply moved, with many people commenting online that they had been reduced to tears. For a few, the film is a reminder of a past they would rather forget.

The film also highlights the pressures of the “gaokao,” the notorious examination for Chinese universities.

China’s communist authorities appear to have only very reluctantly allowed the film by Hong Kong director Derek Tsang to show because of the sensitivity of the subject.

In February it was abruptly pulled without explanation from the Berlin Film Festival days before it was to be screened.

The Global Times, one of the ruling Communist Party’s mouthpieces, cited a survey that found more than 32 percent of Chinese primary and middle-school pupils have been bullied.

Six percent were frequently bullied, it said, which given China’s vast population means tens of millions of young children.