080808080808! Thank you Yimou!

At 8 minutes 8 seconds past 8pm, on the 8th day of the 8th month in the year of '08, the Beijing Olympics was unveiled in the Birds' Nest Stadium in Beijing. And what an opening ceremony it was! For me, in the many opening ceremonies I have seen in my 50 years, it was easy the most spectacular and most extravagant.
I watched in awe of the technology behind the ceremony, the visualisation and the execution. And then it hit me, the man who was behind this vision was a filmmaker - the great Zhang Yimou - one of my favourite filmmakers of all time.
In fact, I am sure he had utilised his art directors and costume designers in the whole scheme, and from the picture below you might have actually think that it was a still from one of his elaborate movies.

For those who don't know who Zhang Yimou is - he is the director of Raise The Red Lantern, To Live, Story of Qiu Ju, Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower and House of Flying Daggers.
After watching this ceremony, maybe the authorities in Malaysia, may actually appoint a filmmaker (local or foreign) to conceptualise some of the events we hold every year. Our Merdeka ceremony celebrations, for example, is stale and not impressive in its execution. Hopefully, we can see something as creative and impressive being executed here.