New film tells stories of less-affluent China

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Japanese film director Ryo Takeuchi's latest documentary, Zoujin Daliangshan, which was shot last year, is about to meet Chinese audiences later this month.

A file photo of Daliangshan in Sichuan province. [Photo/VCG]

Takeuchi, who is also called Liangshu, or Uncle Liang, by Chinese fans, is known for his documentaries about China's efforts in combating the coronavirus, including Long Time No See Wuhan and The Post-Pandemic Era.

This time, his camera was aimed at China's poverty alleviation efforts in Liangshan, Sichuan province, which was officially declared to be out of poverty at the end of last year.

On April 5, an offline film-reviewing activity was held in Nanjing that invited fans to watch the film and share their opinions with the production team, including Takeuchi; Xu Liang, the photographer; and Da Ke, the live director.

An audience member responded: "Before watching the film, my ideas were naive. I thought they needed a teaching building and other facilities. But after I heard what the father said in the film, I thought they needed tolerance and understanding from the urban population."

The team filmed the lives of women from the Yi ethnic minority group, showing how they use their embroidery skills to improve their income. A group of teenagers playing soccer were also filmed, telling about their dreams and plans for the future.

"I want to be a football star like Wu Lei," one boy said.

"I want to take my parents live in the city when I grow up; they have never lived in a city before," another boy said.

Photographer Xu Liang said: "We walked for five hours to get to the top, and it was minus -10 C on top in July, we needed five layers of quilts."

Da Ke, the director, added: "When we arrived at Shuanghe elementary school, I had regrets about taking the job. The floor was muddy, and when I woke up in the morning, bird droppings were beside my nose."

Tekeuchi himself noted: "Transportation in Liangshan has improved a great deal compared with a decade ago when I first came here. I want the world to know that China is not just metropolitan Beijing and Shanghai. There are also poor places. There are great differences of the living conditions of the 1.4 billion Chinese population."

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