Reel life

A prophetic article published in 1908 begged three questions: Will a Chinese athlete ever have the honor to call himself an Olympian? Will a Chinese flag bearer ever proudly lead a team to the Olympic stadium? Is it too much of a dream that China will one day host the Olympic Games?

Exactly one century later, all of these questions have clear answers. But the story impressed Daryl Goodrich, the British director who came to Beijing in 2006 to prepare a short film about the host-to-be of the 2008 Olympic Games.

"It was a lovely story that shows Chinese people's dedication to sports," he recalls. "So I used it as the lead of my film."

Goodrich is one of the five directors invited by the Beijing government to shoot a five-minute film about the city as they saw it in their eyes. Entitled Vision Beijing, the two-year project also involves Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore, Iranian director Majid Majidi, French director Patrice Leconte and Hong Kong helmer Andrew Lau Wai-Keung.

"Sports and Beijing" is the theme chosen by the 42-year-old Goodrich, known for his promotional film in support of London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. As a retired athlete, Goodrich says he felt the Olympics inspired every small thing about Beijing today.

"My strongest visual moment was people of all ages exercising in a park at 6:30 in the morning," he recalls. "I feel the vitality, energy and zest for life that starts from the very young generation to the old."

In his film Belief, Goodrich captured various scenes of Beijingers enjoying sports, such as elderly people doing tai chi in parks, teenagers having fun on basketball courts and children playing table tennis with former Olympic champion Deng Yaping.

"Sports are full of passion and excitement, just like Beijing," he says.

When asked about the opinion of Steven Spielberg's decision to quit as an adviser to the Games, the huge sports fan insisted that the charm of sports is personal dedication and passion - not anything else.

"I was invited to make a film about sports, about children and to celebrate the Olympic Games. That's what I do, and that's why I came to Beijing, and I had a wonderful time."

Also focusing on ordinary people was Giuseppe Tornatore, who worked to create a touching portrayal of average Beijingers.

His film opens during a busy Beijing morning, when bus driver Li Li recognizes an elderly woman doing tai chi in the park as his former teacher.

So Li pens letters to her former classmates, including an architect, a Peking Opera singer, a tricycle rider and a martial arts coach. Through introducing these classmates' professions, she introduces Beijing's ancient and modern landmarks - the Temple of Heaven, National Center for Performing Arts and Olympic venues - in a natural and engaging way.

At the end of the film, the old classmates surprise their teacher by gathering outside of her home and shouting their own names.

"I have loved this city for a long time," says the director of widely acclaimed works such as Cinema Paradiso, The Legend of 1900 and Malena. He says in a statement the film was inspired by his observation of the expectations and confidence in young Chinese people's eyes, as well as their respect for tradition.

Many ordinary Beijingers volunteered to help during Tornatore's shooting. Some of them were among those doing tai chi in the park; some were bicycle riders; others showed up as the old classmates.

Iranian director Majid Majidi is another master storyteller taking part in the filming. Although Iran's only Oscar-nominee joked that "featuring a civilization with 5,000-year history in five minutes is very hard, because every minute is 1,000 years", he found a way to do it - through its people.

Named Colors Fly, the film features a group of children writing good wishes on balloons of the five colors of the Olympic rings. The children then transport the balloons by bike to release them into the sky.

While his film mostly focused on children, he says he was most impressed by the optimism among the elderly when he came to Beijing in 2006.

"Senior people are living with a vigorous attitude, trying to make progress every day," he said in a press conference in Beijing on Saturday. "The scene that they play in the park, enjoying themselves like children was very moving to me."

Majidi refused to comment on Spielberg's decision to quit as an advisor for the 2008 Games' opening and closing ceremonies, saying people differ in their views.

"But I do hope that art and politics do not cross over," he says.

Popular Hong Kong director Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, whose film Infernal Affairs was remade by Hollywood as The Departed, says what impressed him about Beijing was the delicious food.

"Beijing's food, like Beijing's culture, represents a distillation of the best the world has to offer," Lau says. "It is really worthy of appreciation and respect."

His tasty five minutes of footage is a visual feast for both gourmets and cinephiles. The fast and lavish takes capture a multitude of foods, including Beijing duck in five-star restaurants, snack stands along the downtown Wangfujing Avenue, desserts in tiny bars beside Houhai Lake and traditional Beijing cuisine in longstanding family-owned eateries.

Stars, including Tony Leung and Jay Zhou, each spoke an English line recommending Chinese cuisine.

Like Lau, French Oscar nominee Patrice Leconte spliced together a variety of Beijing scenes rather than constructing a detailed storyline. The director likened his work to an impressionistic painting.

"I would like to be a painter if I did not make films," he was quoted as saying. "Beijing's romance is never less than that of Paris, so my film, like Monet's impressionism, will not focus on details but will treat the imagination."

The work depicts historic sites, such as the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace, as well as modern scenes, including the Olympic venues, the hum of Beijing's streets and its quiet parks.

The four films premiered on Sunday on CCTV for an audience of more than 900 million. Broadcasts on Beijing TV, national TV stations of France, Italy, Iran and international flights have already been scheduled. Organizer Wang Hui says that the foremost goal of the project is to provide perspectives on the city from people of different cultural backgrounds.

(China Daily 02/26/2008 page19)