The first Chinese film to pay tribute to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, showing the charm of snowboarding, will be released in cinemas in the Chinese mainland on January 14, gathering many Chinese stars who are fans of winter sports.
The movie named Snow Dance is considered the first ice-and-snow themed film released in the Chinese mainland that showcases the skiing events for nearly 50 years in the country. It is also the first movie shot at the main venue of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the production company told the Global Times.
Numerous difficult skiing moves are displayed on the screen, including U-channel spinning in the air and snowboard chases with the speed of over 70 kilometers per hour.
The 88-minute-long work narrates the story of a professional skier named Lin Feng, played by Chinese actor Han Geng.
Lin just misses the opportunity to be crowned snowboarding champion again at an international competition in Sweden and is unsure about his career so he returns to his hometown Chongli, in North China’s Hebei Province, where he has learned skiing.
Chongli is known for its facilities for winter sports and will stage most of the skiing events during the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Lin wants to find his first skiing mentor, Song Beifeng (played by actor Jiang Wu), and his original intentions to learn the sport.
In Chongli’s skiing resort, Lin meets with different people, including senior skiers who are still good at snow sports and Song’s other students.
Wu Jing, Chinese actor and director whose movies are often box-office hits in China, played the role of one of Song’s senior students injured by Lin in a training accident a few years ago.
Lin also meets Zhang Yuheng (Yin Fang) in the journey, another of Song’s students. Zhang helps Lin to find his real problem, which actually is his mental state when competing with him in the skiing resort.
They are trapped in a snowstorm together and their friendship is deepened even more.
Raymond Yip from Hong Kong directed the movie and attended the premiere held in Beijing on Tuesday.
Yip told the Global Times that shooting the movie took more than 20 days, which was a difficult timeline as the production team had to overcome a variety of challenges caused by the natural conditions.
“We had to try our best to buy time as in March the snow can even melt overnight,” Yip said.
Photo: Screenshot of the official trailer of the movie Snow Dance
