http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw7fzAJnr00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQTrUp8Eg9A
There's these other movies I'm going to try to find too... Because I really want to watch them!
Bird's Nest
Description of movie:
New world records are being created in the National Stadium, but a "Bird's Nest" built on camera is also catching the eyes of audiences.
Ning Jingwu is the director and playwright of the film, "Bird's Nest." He says he shot the film to interpret the Green Olympics and to remind people to live healthy lives.
"This film is not related with physical contest directly. It stresses more on healthy life style. We want to show healthiness not only in physics but also in lifestyle."
The film takes place in a Miao Village in Guizhou Province with a beautiful natural landscape. A letter breaks the quiet lives of the children there. Jia Xiangma's father says in the letter that he is busy building the Bird's Nest in Beijing, but his friends don't believe him. The villagers even don't know what the Bird's Nest is used for. The elderly people are busy showing off, while the businessmen connect it with coffee advertising. Only Xiangma trusts his father and makes up his mind to see the Bird's Nest with his own eyes. Xiangma and his friends go cut trees to buy the train ticket, but they soon find that it is impossible to make enough money. Xiangma instead finds a way to sell the town's rice wine and earns enough money to go to Beijing. With the blessing of the villagers, Xiangma sets off to see his father and the Bird's Nest. Xiangma accidentally stumbles into the marathon and wins with his bare feet.
The director tells us that his inspiration comes from Miao culture, from a particular story in Guizhou Province.
"There was a woman of Miao nationality whose husband worked away from home. She thought her family was incomplete without her husband, so she borrowed a video camera to record her daily life. She wanted to show it to the men who worked far from home so they would come back. In her eyes, living happily and healthily is most important. I wanted to shoot a film to inspire people to think about their lifestyles."
The children in the village don't know what the Bird's Nest is, but Ning explains why the Bird's Nest was important as the setting of the film.
"The name of the National Stadium represents people's dream of returning to nature. We have done a great deal to improve the air quality and traffic conditions, but our lives are still far beyond satisfactory. People all over the world should seek healthier and purer lives."
Many films with the theme of the Beijing Games have been released in the Olympic year, but Ning's film, unlike the others, focuses on the individual.
"I think everybody should take part in the Olympic Games. It's a physical contest that raises the question of what life should be."
http://eng.wcetv.com/1/2008/08/22/126s4282.htm
http://exp.chinafilm.com/Movies/indexnr.ph...0081216172151/4
Lala's Gun
An offbeat coming-of-ager set among one of China's biggest minorities, the Miao, 'Lala's Gun' makes up in verismo detail what it lacks in narrative drama. Shot entirely in the Hmong language, pic doesn't romanticize its non-Han cast, making this of interest to specialist webs and ethnographic auds. Careful packaging, plus a 10-to-15-minute trim, could bounce this onto the fest circuit.
A labor of love by Chinese writer-director Ning Jingwu ('The Birthday'), the film centers on the Miao of Guizhou province in southern China, where custom dictates a boy will receive a gun from his father on his 15th birthday. Problem is, Gun Lala (newcomer Wang Jishuai, likable), who lives with his grandma (87-year-old Shi Mingma), has never seen his father. Armed with the knowledge that dad is a crack hunter and has a dragon-claw birthmark on his back, Lala sets off to find him. Boy's odyssey is a fascinating if leisurely one; a subplot involving a friend (Gun Dangyuan) who leaves for Guangzhou 'to see the world' provides some perspective on Lala's local journey. Ning's straightforward helming is enhanced by natural lensing of Guizhou's mountainous southeast around Basha.
Camera (color), Wu Lixiao; editor, Jia Cuiping; music, Chen Changfeng, Xu Xiangrong; art director, Shi Qiurong. Reviewed at Beijing Screenings, Sept. 24, 2008. Hmong dialogue. Running time: 103 MIN.
I think that particular group of miao (Songtao) speak an unintelligible dialect as well.
