Deng's Climb shows leader as a tourist

Though the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (1904-97) has been portrayed on big screens many times as a legend, a recent film on him chooses a sideways angle and tries to show something beyond the stereotypes.

This fresh view, seen in a nationwide release last week, is the image of a persevering tourist rather than a resourceful political leader. Deng's Climb depicts his four-day trip in July 1979 to Mount Huangshan, a celebrated scenic area in East China's Anhui province.

"I am shooting not a great person, but an old man," says director Chen Guoxing, who is known for his mainstream biographics and historical dramas.