Talking Entertainment: Your Weekend Guide to the Arts

Nick Richards | Mar 22, 2013 12:00 pm | Add a comment | 1064 reads

The latest 3-D visual feast from Disney arrives in Beijing cinemas next Friday. Oz the Great and Powerful, a fantastical prequel to the classic The Wizard of Oz, has been tearing up the box office in the US this week (in stark contrast to Lost in Thailand's pitiful North American debut). With some astounding visual effects, the film tells the origins of the "actual" Wizard of Oz – a circus magician named Oscar Diggs, who was blown into the unruly land of Oz by a tornado. There he struggles to create peace while juggling a twisted relationship with three witches. The film’s official trailer was released on Youku earlier this week and we’re expecting a storm at the ticket booths next weekend.

Coming back to the present and our “witch-less” turf. All night tonight and all day on Saturday, the Gulou area will be overrun with party animals participating in Bai Ye, or White Night. This is a 24-hour cultural bonanza organized by JUE Festival. To learn more about this scavenger hunt, read here.

There are two elements of this White Night that we find especially worth noting. The first is Luma Lu’s mobile studio, a film installation built into a rickshaw. We hope to spot it zooming up and down Gui Jie, or maybe doing circles around the Drum Tower. The second is the Beer, Chuanr and Art party in the SURGE courtyard. The title speaks for itself.

Here’s a list of other interesting A&C events this weekend:

Finally, The Bookworm Literary Festival comes to a close tonight. This was the largest of their festivals so far with over 80 events, featuring authors from pretty much every continent. Our congratulations go to the BLF team for bringing the city to life with books this month. Well done.

Below is a photo from the translation slam event at the festival last night (far more entertaining than Grimes, in my opinion). Two improv performers were challenged to translate the traditional art of xiangsheng and the results were hilarious. We were told that transcriptions of the translations could be found on The Bookworm website later today. Tonight, the book talks wrap up with Sex on the Page and The Future of Writing.

Photo: Nick Richards