The Beijing 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony

[Hong]

I just watched the Olympic Opening Ceremony live on television and I am speechless. What PERFECTION. I have never seen anything so sublime, poetic and moving in my entire life.

The beauty, the spirit, the gentleness and prowess, the sheer heart of the entire performance are an immense gift from the Chinese to the rest of us, all over the planet. Don't miss it for anything, no matter what, wherever you may be.

Of course the director is Zhang Yi-Mou, who gave us "Hero" and so many other superb movies from Red Sorghum to House of Flying Dragons... so the artistic direction alone is to die for. The performers are flawless, and very emotionally engaged in and moved themselves. I found myself crying over and over at the kindness and goodwill I felt radiating from that epic gathering at the heart of Beijing, that has already witnessed so much history, greatness, conflict and tragedy.

It will come as no surprise to fans of Broken Sword that the Opening Ceremony carries a similar message to the one he teaches Nameless and through him, the Emperor. "Tien Shà". "All Under Heaven". Peace as the culmination of human pursuits, as the highest attainment of both artist and warrior.

But words fail me, forgive me. Zhang's vision has taken flight, borne on the wings friendship, the highest degree of love we earthlings can know, by the thousands of Chinese artists, performers and children who came together to share with the world their stunning achievement. Their message was heard. We are all family on this fragile planet. We are all one under heaven.
_________________
Pour l'essentiel, l'homme est ce qu'il cache - André Malraux

[Safran]

On "Get to know each other" I wanterd to express how impressive the
artistic performance of the opening in my opinion was - and it was a real pleasure for me to read your detailed and excellent written point of view on "Random Thoughts"- I do agree !

Let us hope for a great success in sport and humanity further on!
Greetings to Canada and "Good Luck"!

[summertime]

Olympics an epic task for director

Friday, September 19, 2008


Reflecting on the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics ceremonies he designed, mainland director Zhang Yimou says their sheer scale eclipsed any movie he worked on.

"I had never needed so many people and gone into so much trouble when I made any of my films," Zhang said.

"The ceremonies are grand cultural events, which entail a daunting amount of coordination. It has been a lot of working with other artists, technicians and officials. It is a time- and energy- consuming job, yet a rare and rewarding experience."

More than 40,000 people took part in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics. The Olympics was held from August 8 to 24, while the Paralympics ended on Wednesday.

The shows involved thousands of costumes and performers, and each makeup artist had to work on 180 performers within hours.

Zhang, who directed such films as Raise the Red Lantern and To Live, said coming up with original ideas for the four shows was tough.

"People want to see something they have never seen before, so it has been extremely difficult for us to be creative," Zhang said.

The highlights of the Olympics opening ceremony included retired gymnast Li Ning soaring through the air, carried by wires to light the cauldron. Hundreds of drummers beat rhythms with their hands and acrobats floated around a translucent globe that emerged from the stadium floor.

But the opening ceremony was also overshadowed by revelations that a young female performer lip-synched a song and that some footage of fireworks that burst into the shape of footprints that was broadcast during the ceremony was computer-generated.

Beijing organizers have defended the lip-synching, saying it was a casting choice.

Zhang did not reveal his next movie project.

The director has not a made a movie since his 2006 Chinese historical epic Curse of the Golden Flower.


http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=18&art_id=71861&sid=20646083&con_type=1



I had a chance to visit the site where Raise The Red Lantern was shot - Qiao Family Compound - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiao%27s_Compound.

It was smaller and more compact than it appears in the film. There are props from the film on display - ie. some of the lanterns, the doll etc.. I wanted to see the spots where the flute/opera scenes took place etc., but only a limited part of the compound is open to the public. The site is still used as a location for various productions, and there were many tourists there.

[katwoman64]

It is a pity that most of the chinese people didn't get to see this show, because a big part of the country has no television at all. And part of Beijing itself, because the buildings that housed the Olimpic Games needed so much power that part of the city was left literally in the dark. So we can surely say that all the Chinese People - outside China, got to see that beauty..............................
Kat