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Studio's move bittersweet for China's film veterans

By Zhang Rui: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, August 6, 2012

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Crowds still wait outside Beijing Film Studio, hoping to be cast as extras if they are lucky enough. [China.org.cn]

Aspiring actors still gather outside Beijing Film Studio, located just outside the city's North Third Ring Road, hoping to be cast as extras if they are lucky enough. But once the studio finishes its relocation to a remote suburb, its historic Beitaipingzhuang lot will be nothing more than a memory.

This month, the last departments of Beijing Film Studio will move to the China Film Group's new, high-tech production base (founded in 2008) located in Yangsong Town, Huairou District. Relocation will likely finish by the end of August, the Beijing Evening News reported.

The landmark Beijing Film Studio was founded in 1949, the same year of the founding of the People's Republic of China. At the time, it was one of three major film studios in the country. When China Film Group was founded in 1999, the studio became part of it. The current relocation marks the fourth time the studio has been moved.

Han Sanping, CEO of the state-owned film enterprise China Film Group, once said the Beijing Film Studio didn't exist anymore as a working entity, but it lives on as a production resource and as an inspiring symbol of the Chinese film industry. Therefore, he said, China Film Group will not just let it go.

Students visit sets of films and TV series at the Beijing Film Studio. [China.org.cn]

In the past few years, major departments of the studio have already moved to the new Huairou District location. Additionally, many of the original studio's former offices and buildings have been rented to other film companies. Soon, mementos of a generation, including the former set of the famous "A Dream of Red Mansions" TV series, also used to shoot over 1,000 other TV shows and films, will be dismantled.

Li Xin, 76, still walks to the main office building of the studio looking for bit parts in films from some private film companies now occupying the former Beijing Film Studio offices. He has participated in two small budget films in the last year. Li is also a former director, once formed his own film studio in 1993. While he was good at the art side of movie production, his studio eventually closed after suffering operational and financial setbacks.

"I feel I'm still young and I can work," Li said. He started working in the Beijing Film Studio in 1971 and carries deep emotional ties to the site. He had heartfelt feelings for the Soviet-style main building, which is slated for demolition once the studio completes its relocation.

Li is just one of the nostalgic elder film workers who will miss the compound. Renowned directors like Chen Kaige, Guan Hu and Zhang Yang once lived on the stuio campus with their parents; while film stars Liu Xiaoqing and Zhao Wei are still staff members of Beijing Film Studio.

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