1 00:00:12,014 --> 00:00:17,014 Welcome 2 00:00:31,223 --> 00:00:32,891 [machinery whirring] 3 00:00:41,524 --> 00:00:43,443 [women speaking indistinctly] 4 00:01:28,571 --> 00:01:30,448 [Cai Guo-Qiang in Mandarin] More than 1,000 years ago, 5 00:01:30,532 --> 00:01:32,743 when the Chinese discovered gunpowder, 6 00:01:32,826 --> 00:01:38,331 they were actually looking for an elixir to make them immortal. 7 00:01:43,211 --> 00:01:48,759 While they were studying it, the medicine... boom! 8 00:01:48,842 --> 00:01:53,513 It exploded, so they came up with the name "fire medicine." 9 00:01:59,477 --> 00:02:05,108 Over time, Chinese people started to use it in celebrations. 10 00:02:05,192 --> 00:02:08,195 They created many beautiful nights. 11 00:02:20,123 --> 00:02:22,960 [reporter 1 in English] The work of legendary artist Cai Guo-Qiang 12 00:02:23,043 --> 00:02:25,045 is the talk of the contemporary art scene, 13 00:02:25,128 --> 00:02:27,464 with his art blowing up all over the world. 14 00:02:29,507 --> 00:02:32,886 [reporter 2] A retrospective of his works at the Guggenheim Museum in New York 15 00:02:32,970 --> 00:02:34,888 brought in record numbers. 16 00:02:36,890 --> 00:02:40,018 [reporter 3] The Olympics Opening Ceremony is right around the corner, 17 00:02:40,102 --> 00:02:42,437 and, as the creative visual force behind it, 18 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:45,983 Cai Guo-Qiang spent years working up to this point. 19 00:03:30,485 --> 00:03:32,404 [indistinct chatter] 20 00:03:36,699 --> 00:03:38,618 [dog barking] 21 00:03:49,046 --> 00:03:50,338 [chuckles] 22 00:03:50,422 --> 00:03:52,090 [speaking Mandarin] 23 00:03:55,135 --> 00:03:57,262 This ladder's width is five meters, 24 00:03:57,345 --> 00:03:58,972 but the structure is soft. 25 00:03:59,056 --> 00:04:02,935 The rungs are made of bamboo poles 26 00:04:03,018 --> 00:04:06,313 or stainless steel. 27 00:04:07,898 --> 00:04:09,399 Lighter is better. 28 00:04:09,482 --> 00:04:12,945 Put fireworks on both sides, including the horizontal rungs, 29 00:04:13,028 --> 00:04:14,487 and thread them all together. 30 00:04:15,948 --> 00:04:17,365 How tall will this ladder be? 31 00:04:17,449 --> 00:04:18,951 Five hundred meters tall. 32 00:04:19,034 --> 00:04:20,243 Five hundred meters tall? 33 00:04:20,327 --> 00:04:22,120 Half a kilometer. 34 00:04:23,246 --> 00:04:30,087 My only concern is the weight. 35 00:04:30,170 --> 00:04:31,379 Let me show you. 36 00:04:33,590 --> 00:04:39,972 We attach the ladder to a hot air balloon... 37 00:04:42,933 --> 00:04:49,647 [in Japanese] He always says that there's no failure or success in art. 38 00:04:50,523 --> 00:04:55,612 He starts all his projects with this attitude. 39 00:04:55,695 --> 00:05:00,742 When there are a lot of troubles or difficulties, 40 00:05:00,826 --> 00:05:02,744 he actually enjoys it. 41 00:05:03,661 --> 00:05:08,208 The Sky Ladder has failed several times. 42 00:05:18,218 --> 00:05:25,058 [in Japanese] This is where I want to make a ladder 43 00:05:25,142 --> 00:05:29,771 to connect the Earth to the universe. 44 00:05:31,814 --> 00:05:36,904 From this window, you can see the top of that hill. 45 00:05:36,987 --> 00:05:40,615 I'm going to use it as a canvas. 46 00:05:41,366 --> 00:05:47,497 The explosion will draw the lines straight into the sky. 47 00:05:58,383 --> 00:06:01,053 This is a ladder to heaven. 48 00:06:01,136 --> 00:06:06,766 In the same way Christians try to get closer to God, 49 00:06:07,350 --> 00:06:11,521 we are going to build a ladder 50 00:06:11,604 --> 00:06:15,108 that connects this town to outer space. 51 00:06:15,192 --> 00:06:16,818 [rain falling] 52 00:06:21,114 --> 00:06:22,991 [thunder rumbling] 53 00:06:25,660 --> 00:06:27,495 [indistinct chatter] 54 00:07:20,507 --> 00:07:21,967 [inaudible] 55 00:07:24,094 --> 00:07:27,805 [in Mandarin] When he first started talking about it with me, 56 00:07:27,889 --> 00:07:29,099 it was his dream. 57 00:07:29,182 --> 00:07:34,021 And he has remained obsessed with trying to achieve it ever since. 58 00:07:59,254 --> 00:08:04,134 Two things of concern: the color and the size of the flame. 59 00:08:04,217 --> 00:08:06,803 It's better to show the ladder by threading the flames together, 60 00:08:06,886 --> 00:08:08,221 not with a series of dots. 61 00:08:08,305 --> 00:08:10,223 If you want to thread them together, you can use these ones. 62 00:08:10,307 --> 00:08:12,934 - How? - Line by line. 63 00:08:14,394 --> 00:08:16,063 - Oh! - [chuckles] 64 00:08:17,605 --> 00:08:20,525 [Cai] Nice. This is a good idea. 65 00:08:20,608 --> 00:08:22,319 Everyone loves to light fireworks. 66 00:08:30,202 --> 00:08:31,369 Beautiful, isn't it? 67 00:08:33,121 --> 00:08:38,460 This town, we don't need permission to test fireworks here. 68 00:08:38,543 --> 00:08:40,337 Light it up and run. 69 00:08:48,095 --> 00:08:51,931 [announcer in English] Liftoff. We have a liftoff. Liftoff on Apollo 11. 70 00:08:55,017 --> 00:08:56,311 [Cai in Mandarin] In the '60s, 71 00:08:56,394 --> 00:08:58,521 when American astronauts landed on the moon, 72 00:08:58,605 --> 00:09:02,109 that was really good news, even in China. 73 00:09:06,571 --> 00:09:09,866 But I was sad because I thought I would never make it to space myself. 74 00:09:12,494 --> 00:09:17,332 But later on, I realized that art could be my space-time tunnel 75 00:09:17,415 --> 00:09:20,877 connecting me to the universe. 76 00:09:22,629 --> 00:09:25,465 If there was an opportunity, 77 00:09:25,548 --> 00:09:29,677 I would like to make a ladder into the clouds. 78 00:09:32,054 --> 00:09:36,058 But the purpose of this ladder wouldn't be for me to go to space. 79 00:09:37,269 --> 00:09:42,190 It would be to encourage a back-and-forth, a dialogue. 80 00:10:35,993 --> 00:10:40,415 [Cai] The ninth wave is the final and most dangerous wave of a tsunami. 81 00:10:42,584 --> 00:10:47,129 I was inspired by the Russian painting The Ninth Wave, 82 00:10:47,214 --> 00:10:50,675 which represents the final struggle of humanity in the face of disaster. 83 00:10:52,219 --> 00:10:56,055 That's why I named this exhibition The Ninth Wave. 84 00:11:26,919 --> 00:11:31,674 [Orville Schell] I think his recent work does have a strong environmental subtext. 85 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:37,639 Because it is, perhaps, China's number one problem, 86 00:11:37,722 --> 00:11:39,391 its environmental future. 87 00:11:43,895 --> 00:11:45,647 He has a deep social conscience. 88 00:11:47,231 --> 00:11:51,944 I think he cares about the world that sustains us all. 89 00:11:56,574 --> 00:11:59,369 He is, I think, trying to find that place 90 00:11:59,452 --> 00:12:04,040 which artists have always needed to find in Chinese society, 91 00:12:04,123 --> 00:12:08,044 which is to do your art with integrity 92 00:12:08,127 --> 00:12:11,172 and yet, not completely run off the tracks 93 00:12:11,255 --> 00:12:15,302 and end up in a state of tension with the authorities. 94 00:13:02,682 --> 00:13:04,058 [explosions] 95 00:16:49,784 --> 00:16:51,661 [all chanting in Mandarin] 96 00:17:01,754 --> 00:17:06,676 [Cai] In the Song dynasty, about 1,000 years ago, 97 00:17:06,759 --> 00:17:09,762 Quanzhou City struggled to develop. 98 00:17:11,598 --> 00:17:14,516 So they invited a feng shui master to investigate. He said, 99 00:17:14,601 --> 00:17:20,231 "The city on top of the mountain nearby is taller and shaped like a fishing net, 100 00:17:20,314 --> 00:17:24,193 and your city is shaped like a fish. This is an ominous sign." 101 00:17:29,824 --> 00:17:32,577 So they built two pagodas, 102 00:17:32,660 --> 00:17:37,373 in order to break this metaphorical net. 103 00:17:40,334 --> 00:17:46,758 This shows that the city really believes in feng shui and in the unseen world. 104 00:17:46,841 --> 00:17:49,719 I grew up in this environment, 105 00:17:49,802 --> 00:17:54,515 so even in the artworks I made from a young age, 106 00:17:54,599 --> 00:17:58,686 I was exploring a connection to this unseen power. 107 00:18:01,313 --> 00:18:06,110 All the artists in Quanzhou would come to our courtyard to paint. 108 00:18:06,193 --> 00:18:09,238 Was it casual or organized? 109 00:18:09,321 --> 00:18:11,532 Everyone would tell each other 110 00:18:11,616 --> 00:18:15,161 to go to Cai Guo-Qiang's house on the weekends to paint, 111 00:18:15,244 --> 00:18:18,414 but they really came for my father 112 00:18:18,497 --> 00:18:22,543 because he was a respected artist in the town. 113 00:18:43,981 --> 00:18:45,775 [Ian Buruma] If you think of Cai's relationship 114 00:18:45,858 --> 00:18:47,819 with his father, the calligrapher, 115 00:18:47,902 --> 00:18:51,488 in some ways he did break away, of course. 116 00:18:51,572 --> 00:18:54,325 In other ways, he didn't, 117 00:18:54,408 --> 00:18:58,871 in the sense that a lot of the explosion pictures 118 00:18:58,955 --> 00:19:01,749 are very calligraphic. 119 00:19:01,833 --> 00:19:06,420 And one of the things that is part of the Chinese and Japanese tradition, 120 00:19:06,503 --> 00:19:10,174 in calligraphy as well as other arts, is the act of spontaneity, 121 00:19:10,257 --> 00:19:15,596 that you do the calligraphy in one go, almost, uh, by instinct, 122 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:16,889 as though you're not thinking. 123 00:19:23,354 --> 00:19:26,983 [Schell] His father, I think, was quite a traditional man. 124 00:19:27,066 --> 00:19:31,779 I think he had a deep respect for Chinese culture. 125 00:19:31,863 --> 00:19:35,407 But of course, in those days, to be interested in such a thing 126 00:19:35,491 --> 00:19:40,246 as classical Chinese calligraphy, or art for that matter, 127 00:19:40,329 --> 00:19:44,250 was something that was considered counterrevolutionary. 128 00:19:44,959 --> 00:19:48,796 [man] Our great socialist fatherland is in a bright and splendid morning. 129 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:51,340 Our great teacher, great leader, 130 00:19:51,423 --> 00:19:55,052 great commander, and great helmsman, Chairman Mao, 131 00:19:55,136 --> 00:19:57,388 is the red sun in our hearts. 132 00:19:58,514 --> 00:20:00,391 [Schell] Well, the Cultural Revolution in China, 133 00:20:00,474 --> 00:20:05,187 which was largely the creation of Chairman Mao and his thinking, 134 00:20:05,271 --> 00:20:09,608 was that if China wanted to truly modernize, 135 00:20:09,691 --> 00:20:12,528 it needed to have a complete revolution. 136 00:20:12,611 --> 00:20:16,073 Not revolution like America had, where we threw out the British, 137 00:20:16,157 --> 00:20:20,369 but a revolution that transformed society. 138 00:20:20,452 --> 00:20:22,288 [crowd cheering] 139 00:20:28,044 --> 00:20:32,089 [Buruma] All the remnants of feudalism had to be smashed. 140 00:20:32,173 --> 00:20:36,593 The great new society could only be built on the ruins of the old. 141 00:20:36,677 --> 00:20:42,391 It's not that hard to stir young people up against their teachers and professors, 142 00:20:42,474 --> 00:20:46,353 and fire them up into that kind of destructive idealism. 143 00:20:46,437 --> 00:20:48,605 [crowd yelling] 144 00:20:56,906 --> 00:20:59,909 [Buruma] So everything that was old had to be smashed. 145 00:20:59,992 --> 00:21:06,665 [Schell] Anybody with any connection to either traditional culture or wealth 146 00:21:06,748 --> 00:21:09,168 suddenly found themselves cast out. 147 00:21:09,251 --> 00:21:11,420 [indistinct shouting] 148 00:21:12,629 --> 00:21:15,674 Literally, pianists had their fingers broken 149 00:21:15,757 --> 00:21:18,594 and people were not allowed to perform traditional theater 150 00:21:18,677 --> 00:21:19,887 and that kind of thing. 151 00:21:24,308 --> 00:21:29,939 [Schell] It was a tectonic, savage and brutal period of China's modern history. 152 00:21:30,022 --> 00:21:32,649 And nobody escaped unscathed. 153 00:21:36,695 --> 00:21:40,657 [Cai in Mandarin] One day, someone told me, 154 00:21:40,741 --> 00:21:43,494 "Cai Guo-Qiang, your dog has been killed." 155 00:21:44,286 --> 00:21:47,498 I ran over and they told me 156 00:21:47,581 --> 00:21:51,377 that my dog had been shot by some Red Guards. 157 00:21:51,460 --> 00:21:56,257 But later on, we took my dead dog and everyone ate it. 158 00:21:56,340 --> 00:21:58,968 - [Wen-You] You ate your dog? - [chuckles] Everyone! 159 00:21:59,051 --> 00:22:02,429 Everyone saw there was an edible dog. 160 00:22:02,513 --> 00:22:05,807 Of course it was sad, but people wouldn't throw that away. 161 00:22:05,892 --> 00:22:11,397 To be able to survive, people were happy to eat that dog. 162 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:13,482 It was the reality of the times. 163 00:22:14,441 --> 00:22:15,526 [chuckles] 164 00:22:15,609 --> 00:22:16,818 [Hong Hong] His father was an intellectual. 165 00:22:16,903 --> 00:22:18,070 His mother was illiterate. 166 00:22:18,154 --> 00:22:21,073 Even worse, his grandmother was extremely strong-willed. 167 00:22:22,158 --> 00:22:28,247 As the eldest son in a family with so much conflict, 168 00:22:28,998 --> 00:22:35,796 he had to look after his brothers and sisters. 169 00:22:37,214 --> 00:22:40,009 You painted this portrait of your father? 170 00:22:42,553 --> 00:22:49,185 [Cai] My father was the manager of a government-owned bookstore. 171 00:22:49,268 --> 00:22:52,896 He spent all his salary on books and never brought any money home. 172 00:22:52,980 --> 00:22:55,566 All of it spent on books? 173 00:22:55,649 --> 00:23:00,029 His only self-justification was that, 174 00:23:00,112 --> 00:23:06,118 "Although I spend money on books, and not the family, 175 00:23:06,202 --> 00:23:10,747 one day you will..." 176 00:23:11,748 --> 00:23:12,959 [sniffles] 177 00:23:16,837 --> 00:23:17,838 [chuckles] 178 00:23:22,843 --> 00:23:24,386 [gulps] 179 00:23:26,222 --> 00:23:28,975 My grandma was always angry with him, 180 00:23:31,268 --> 00:23:34,021 that he never brought his earnings home. 181 00:23:38,067 --> 00:23:41,778 He said books were his fortune... 182 00:23:42,654 --> 00:23:43,655 [chuckles] 183 00:23:45,199 --> 00:23:47,994 and that they would be my fortune, too. 184 00:23:50,454 --> 00:23:54,500 We had to burn most of them during the Cultural Revolution. 185 00:23:54,583 --> 00:23:58,754 We burned the books for three days and nights, 186 00:23:58,837 --> 00:24:01,923 mostly at night, and I helped him do it. 187 00:24:02,674 --> 00:24:04,426 [fireworks exploding] 188 00:24:54,685 --> 00:24:56,562 [birds chirping] 189 00:24:59,356 --> 00:25:02,859 - [interviewer in English] You happy here? - Yeah, uh... 190 00:25:02,943 --> 00:25:04,736 [in Mandarin] Lots of memories. 191 00:25:04,820 --> 00:25:08,782 Those tall buildings weren't here in those days. 192 00:25:12,494 --> 00:25:17,208 I grew up on East Street 193 00:25:18,041 --> 00:25:23,380 and my wife, still my girlfriend then, grew up on South Street. 194 00:25:23,464 --> 00:25:27,301 It would take me about eight to ten minutes on a bicycle, 195 00:25:29,428 --> 00:25:32,139 from my house to her house. 196 00:25:32,223 --> 00:25:33,765 [dog barking] 197 00:25:39,313 --> 00:25:41,898 - What's up? - Did you see Ping? 198 00:25:41,982 --> 00:25:45,361 [Hong Hong] To be honest, before I met him, 199 00:25:45,444 --> 00:25:49,448 I had seen him in a movie as a villain, 200 00:25:49,531 --> 00:25:55,579 which didn't leave me with a good impression. 201 00:25:59,583 --> 00:26:05,046 When I met him, his whole lifestyle was very different from everyone else's. 202 00:26:09,676 --> 00:26:14,848 It was just that Cai had a lot of energy. 203 00:26:14,931 --> 00:26:19,978 From morning to night, he would work constantly. 204 00:26:26,818 --> 00:26:29,738 [Cai] When I was young, 205 00:26:29,821 --> 00:26:35,244 I was timid and cautious. 206 00:26:36,995 --> 00:26:40,832 My work was overly influenced by my father, 207 00:26:40,916 --> 00:26:44,420 following the same conventional pattern. 208 00:26:48,632 --> 00:26:50,467 I was searching for an energy, 209 00:26:51,427 --> 00:26:56,056 the kind that would disrupt my art. 210 00:26:57,474 --> 00:26:59,310 [fireworks exploding] 211 00:26:59,393 --> 00:27:06,275 In my hometown, firecrackers and fireworks are used 212 00:27:06,358 --> 00:27:11,780 to deliver various messages in daily life, 213 00:27:11,863 --> 00:27:15,576 so I thought of gunpowder. 214 00:27:15,659 --> 00:27:20,247 In the beginning, I tried shooting toy rockets onto canvas, 215 00:27:20,331 --> 00:27:23,292 but the canvas caught on fire. 216 00:27:26,587 --> 00:27:31,925 Playing with gunpowder set me free. 217 00:27:36,263 --> 00:27:37,764 [Jennifer Wen Ma] It's exploding history, 218 00:27:37,848 --> 00:27:42,603 you know, if you're putting gunpowder onto oil paint and blowing it up. 219 00:27:42,686 --> 00:27:46,815 I mean, that's literally destroying your own creation. 220 00:27:46,898 --> 00:27:50,026 When this is something you're taught your entire artistic life, 221 00:27:50,110 --> 00:27:54,281 and you're blowing it up and calling that art, calling that moment art, 222 00:27:54,365 --> 00:27:58,494 and that's already turning the idea of what art is on its head. 223 00:28:45,374 --> 00:28:47,251 [indistinct chatter] 224 00:29:33,129 --> 00:29:34,798 [speaking in Mandarin] 225 00:30:46,953 --> 00:30:48,789 [Buruma] The mid '80s to the late '80s 226 00:30:48,872 --> 00:30:51,667 was one of the most exciting periods to be in China 227 00:30:51,750 --> 00:30:54,127 because everything started to open up. 228 00:30:54,210 --> 00:30:56,838 It was the post-Mao period, 229 00:30:56,922 --> 00:31:00,676 and people started to experiment in poetry, and art, and films and so on, 230 00:31:00,759 --> 00:31:03,512 and there was quite a lot of freedom. 231 00:31:03,595 --> 00:31:06,390 In many ways, freer than China is today. 232 00:31:09,435 --> 00:31:14,064 [Hong Hong in Mandarin] A lot of young people wanted to improve themselves. 233 00:31:14,147 --> 00:31:19,277 Everyone gathered together to discuss art and culture. 234 00:31:20,404 --> 00:31:25,784 People would say to Cai, "Although you're a hardworking artist, 235 00:31:25,867 --> 00:31:29,996 it is not possible for you to surpass Picasso." 236 00:31:31,415 --> 00:31:34,418 He'd say, "Why can't I surpass Picasso?" 237 00:31:37,838 --> 00:31:40,507 But life was difficult in China, 238 00:31:40,591 --> 00:31:47,556 so he was intent on leaving the country, wherever that would take him. 239 00:31:57,315 --> 00:31:58,609 [indistinct chatter] 240 00:32:20,881 --> 00:32:27,262 [Cai] I feel my art became much more pure after I arrived in Japan... 241 00:32:27,929 --> 00:32:31,725 sensitivity to materials and the control of form. 242 00:32:33,977 --> 00:32:37,481 I think Japanese contemporary art had a profound effect on him. 243 00:32:38,940 --> 00:32:41,943 This research back into materialism, 244 00:32:42,027 --> 00:32:45,531 um, the purity of material, the meaning of that, 245 00:32:45,614 --> 00:32:50,326 reduction of the practice, so you come to this essence. 246 00:32:53,664 --> 00:32:55,666 [Cai] When discussing art in Japan, 247 00:32:55,749 --> 00:33:00,420 they would often ask, "How is art in the Western world?" 248 00:33:00,504 --> 00:33:04,800 I resisted this type of thinking, 249 00:33:04,883 --> 00:33:08,929 of East versus West. 250 00:33:10,597 --> 00:33:13,391 It was as if I had arrived at a dinner table 251 00:33:13,474 --> 00:33:19,355 and there were Chinese and Western dishes chaotically laid out. 252 00:33:19,439 --> 00:33:22,526 I wondered if I could ignore the table, 253 00:33:22,609 --> 00:33:25,654 or just pull the tablecloth out from under it. 254 00:33:26,362 --> 00:33:29,825 [chuckles] So I started to think about aliens in space 255 00:33:29,908 --> 00:33:34,746 and how they would see our planet from the universe. 256 00:34:18,957 --> 00:34:20,792 [man speaking indistinctly on walkie] 257 00:34:26,547 --> 00:34:28,341 [fireworks exploding] 258 00:34:47,736 --> 00:34:49,529 [woman speaking Mandarin] 259 00:34:57,996 --> 00:34:59,330 [Cai] I'm going to sketch a little bit 260 00:34:59,414 --> 00:35:00,916 so you have an idea of what I'm looking for. 261 00:35:00,999 --> 00:35:06,296 Here is the fishing village with its curving harbor, 262 00:35:06,379 --> 00:35:08,006 here is a boat... 263 00:35:17,223 --> 00:35:20,560 This place has a sense of wonder, 264 00:35:20,644 --> 00:35:23,188 a rare quality that many other places lack. 265 00:35:24,105 --> 00:35:28,276 This could be the place. 266 00:35:28,819 --> 00:35:32,405 It's close to the image of a fishing village as I remember it from childhood. 267 00:35:41,414 --> 00:35:46,670 Ideally, I would have done the Sky Ladder at my grandmother's fishing village. 268 00:35:46,753 --> 00:35:49,715 But it was destroyed for redevelopment a few years ago. 269 00:35:51,382 --> 00:35:54,385 I'd like to find somewhere with the same magical atmosphere. 270 00:35:59,808 --> 00:36:01,434 [speaking in Mandarin] 271 00:36:31,256 --> 00:36:32,841 [firecrackers exploding] 272 00:36:38,054 --> 00:36:41,266 [Cai] My grandma was always the family's pillar. 273 00:36:41,349 --> 00:36:46,772 When I was little, she already believed that I'd become a great artist. 274 00:36:48,106 --> 00:36:50,566 I would like to make this Sky Ladder for her. 275 00:36:54,029 --> 00:36:56,782 [in Japanese] Of course, he cherishes his grandmother. 276 00:36:56,865 --> 00:36:59,951 He keeps her close to his heart. 277 00:37:00,035 --> 00:37:05,373 His granny represents his childhood. His town. 278 00:37:18,804 --> 00:37:20,638 Wow! [chuckles] 279 00:37:22,473 --> 00:37:24,059 Look who's here. 280 00:37:26,227 --> 00:37:27,353 [laughs] 281 00:37:28,354 --> 00:37:29,898 Look who's here. 282 00:37:30,899 --> 00:37:32,150 Who am I? 283 00:37:32,233 --> 00:37:33,985 Guo-Qiang. 284 00:37:34,069 --> 00:37:36,196 Ah, amazing, amazing. 285 00:37:36,279 --> 00:37:39,532 How amazing that you immediately recognize your Guo-Qiang. 286 00:37:39,615 --> 00:37:41,409 You're amazing. 287 00:37:41,492 --> 00:37:44,037 Guo-Qiang is your oldest grandson, isn't he? 288 00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:45,121 Ah! 289 00:37:45,205 --> 00:37:49,042 No one is as amazing as you at the age of 100. 290 00:37:49,125 --> 00:37:54,881 I'm inviting you to come see my project. 291 00:37:54,965 --> 00:38:01,387 I am going to do a Sky Ladder in a fishing village. Do you hear me? 292 00:38:03,014 --> 00:38:09,062 Me! I am going to do a project by the sea and you're invited to see it. Okay? 293 00:38:13,649 --> 00:38:15,276 [dog barking] 294 00:38:33,962 --> 00:38:36,547 Thank you for taking care of him. 295 00:38:39,717 --> 00:38:40,927 Dad? 296 00:38:41,011 --> 00:38:42,095 [man breathing heavily] 297 00:38:42,178 --> 00:38:43,179 Dad? 298 00:38:44,097 --> 00:38:45,348 It's me. 299 00:38:47,976 --> 00:38:49,936 I saw Grandma yesterday. 300 00:38:57,110 --> 00:39:00,446 Grandma is almost 100 years old. 301 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:07,537 As I remember it, 302 00:39:07,620 --> 00:39:11,917 he and my grandmother often argued, 303 00:39:13,043 --> 00:39:18,714 but in their hearts, they relied on each other. 304 00:39:20,758 --> 00:39:26,056 He's been like this for four or five years. 305 00:39:28,141 --> 00:39:32,770 We can't let my grandmother [clears throat] see him in this state. 306 00:39:32,853 --> 00:39:35,982 He is incapable of communication. 307 00:39:36,066 --> 00:39:40,070 In my grandmother's eyes, he can still paint and write 308 00:39:40,153 --> 00:39:44,865 and he can drink and stay up all night. 309 00:39:46,993 --> 00:39:48,119 Mmm-hmm. 310 00:39:50,914 --> 00:39:56,377 Sometimes I don't know whether what I'm doing is right or not. 311 00:40:51,599 --> 00:40:56,687 [Thomas Krens] For most of the late 1990s and the early 2000s, 312 00:40:56,771 --> 00:41:00,566 he was an emerging Chinese artist. 313 00:41:00,650 --> 00:41:02,986 Maybe the first pivotal moment 314 00:41:03,069 --> 00:41:07,407 was, um, at MASS MoCA, which was in Massachusetts. 315 00:41:07,490 --> 00:41:10,576 But that exhibition was Cai's first really big show. 316 00:41:10,660 --> 00:41:14,539 I remember when I saw it, it was clear to me that Cai had arrived. 317 00:41:14,622 --> 00:41:19,460 You know, this combination of space and scale and invention. 318 00:41:19,544 --> 00:41:20,836 That was the moment. 319 00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:22,505 [fireworks exploding] 320 00:41:26,509 --> 00:41:29,012 [Ben Davis] I remember hearing about the explosion events 321 00:41:29,095 --> 00:41:32,223 well before I had ever seen an explosion event, 322 00:41:32,307 --> 00:41:35,101 and thinking, "That guy really nailed it." 323 00:41:35,185 --> 00:41:38,479 [news anchor 1] To say that the Chinese artist, Cai Guo-Qiang, 324 00:41:38,563 --> 00:41:42,733 has exploded onto the contemporary art scene is no exaggeration. 325 00:41:42,817 --> 00:41:44,402 [explosion] 326 00:41:44,485 --> 00:41:47,613 That's what every artist is looking for, is a signature form. 327 00:41:47,697 --> 00:41:50,825 "I took this material and I made it my own." 328 00:41:58,749 --> 00:42:01,794 Early work has begun on the largest single installation 329 00:42:01,877 --> 00:42:03,463 ever commissioned for Brisbane's gallery... 330 00:42:03,546 --> 00:42:04,839 [news anchor 2] A retrospective of his works 331 00:42:04,922 --> 00:42:08,468 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York brought in record numbers. 332 00:42:08,551 --> 00:42:12,305 How many explosions does it take to complete the painting? 333 00:42:13,764 --> 00:42:16,226 - Typically, once. - Just once? 334 00:42:25,193 --> 00:42:26,944 Whoo! 335 00:42:44,254 --> 00:42:45,255 [Cai] Good. 336 00:42:50,050 --> 00:42:51,594 [both grunt] 337 00:42:52,595 --> 00:42:53,638 Kiss your papa. 338 00:43:21,124 --> 00:43:23,083 [Cai speaking Mandarin] 339 00:43:25,378 --> 00:43:28,047 [in English] We'll go over what different effects will appear. 340 00:43:32,135 --> 00:43:34,053 [Cai in Mandarin] The sky is filled with stars... 341 00:43:34,137 --> 00:43:36,806 [interpreter in English] In the sky, there will be twinkling stars. 342 00:43:36,889 --> 00:43:38,599 [in Mandarin] ...blue stars... 343 00:43:38,683 --> 00:43:39,809 [interpreter in English] Blue ones. 344 00:43:40,810 --> 00:43:41,852 [in Mandarin] ...cascades. 345 00:43:41,936 --> 00:43:44,021 [interpreter in English] And then a cascade, a waterfall kind. 346 00:43:44,104 --> 00:43:46,732 [in Mandarin] ...accompanied by the sound of ocean waves. 347 00:43:47,775 --> 00:43:49,985 [in English] At the same time, there's the sound of waves. 348 00:43:51,237 --> 00:43:53,198 [Cai in Mandarin] Silver leaves fall in groups. 349 00:43:53,281 --> 00:43:55,533 [in English] Some silver falling leaves will appear. 350 00:43:55,616 --> 00:43:57,868 [Cai speaking Mandarin] 351 00:43:59,245 --> 00:44:00,538 Oh... 352 00:44:04,792 --> 00:44:07,378 [Krens] Being a contemporary artist is not necessarily coming up 353 00:44:07,462 --> 00:44:10,506 with a brilliant theoretical breakthrough concept. 354 00:44:11,382 --> 00:44:16,179 The reality is that when you have achieved a level of recognition 355 00:44:16,262 --> 00:44:19,974 and you have the capacity to generate resources, 356 00:44:20,057 --> 00:44:26,939 you tend to push the technology to another level. 357 00:44:27,022 --> 00:44:28,524 [gunpowder exploding] 358 00:44:40,870 --> 00:44:43,581 [Phil Grucci] We have developed many innovations 359 00:44:43,664 --> 00:44:48,211 that have created the ability for Cai, in his way, 360 00:44:48,294 --> 00:44:49,462 to think outside of the box. 361 00:44:54,884 --> 00:44:58,137 A pixel burst is a shell that launches in the sky, 362 00:44:58,220 --> 00:45:00,931 has an embedded computer chip on the inside. 363 00:45:01,015 --> 00:45:05,520 And with the embedded computer chip, you can control, down to milliseconds, 364 00:45:05,603 --> 00:45:07,605 the time that the shell is launched from a mortar 365 00:45:07,688 --> 00:45:09,524 to the time it explodes in the sky. 366 00:45:10,650 --> 00:45:12,443 If you can connect the dots, 367 00:45:12,527 --> 00:45:17,657 you can create some very amazing and very large-scale abstract images. 368 00:45:19,742 --> 00:45:21,411 [crowd cheering] 369 00:45:30,169 --> 00:45:32,963 [Davis] I think the work is spectacular. 370 00:45:33,047 --> 00:45:35,758 That's a thing contemporary artists are doing, 371 00:45:35,841 --> 00:45:38,344 playing on the big stage. 372 00:45:38,428 --> 00:45:43,641 [announcer] Everybody clear on this line. Standing by for show in one minute. 373 00:45:44,850 --> 00:45:45,935 Twenty seconds. 374 00:45:46,018 --> 00:45:50,690 [Davis] This sort of pop art, merging of art and entertainment, 375 00:45:50,773 --> 00:45:53,025 is the currency of the day. 376 00:45:57,988 --> 00:46:02,493 [Wen Ma] The difference between the first gunpowder explosion he did 377 00:46:02,577 --> 00:46:07,289 to these fireworks shows that he is now known for. 378 00:46:07,373 --> 00:46:12,252 One is really just in your face, challenging the status quo. 379 00:46:12,337 --> 00:46:15,297 The other one is servicing, entertaining. 380 00:46:21,220 --> 00:46:24,306 [Davis] He is such a good showman. 381 00:46:25,850 --> 00:46:30,104 I have used him as an example of the top of the top. 382 00:46:30,187 --> 00:46:33,023 A very specific kind of artist. 383 00:46:33,107 --> 00:46:36,235 From there you'd start, like, thinking about Damien Hirst, 384 00:46:36,318 --> 00:46:38,613 Takashi Murakami, Olafur Eliasson... 385 00:46:40,698 --> 00:46:42,492 That's really the top of the top. 386 00:46:42,575 --> 00:46:46,746 Artists that function sort of like corporations or entrepreneurs, 387 00:46:46,829 --> 00:46:48,706 who stamp their brand on everything. 388 00:46:50,082 --> 00:46:52,167 You're gonna do a massive firework display, 389 00:46:52,251 --> 00:46:53,878 the permitting alone... 390 00:46:53,961 --> 00:46:55,963 like, the power structures that embeds you in, 391 00:46:56,046 --> 00:46:58,340 the amount of money you need in order to do that... 392 00:46:58,424 --> 00:47:01,135 And that's gonna produce an ideological pressure on your work. 393 00:47:01,218 --> 00:47:03,303 And it's not the easiest thing in the world 394 00:47:03,388 --> 00:47:05,556 to turn around and bite the hand that feeds you. 395 00:47:14,524 --> 00:47:16,233 [crowd cheering] 396 00:47:22,907 --> 00:47:24,700 [crowd cheering] 397 00:47:36,086 --> 00:47:39,882 [Cai in Mandarin] I had a goal for the opening ceremony, 398 00:47:39,965 --> 00:47:43,886 to make it more modern, international and artistic. 399 00:47:46,597 --> 00:47:48,933 I had been working abroad for a long time, 400 00:47:49,016 --> 00:47:52,812 but if I could do this well, it would help the country 401 00:47:52,895 --> 00:47:53,979 and the people... 402 00:47:55,314 --> 00:47:58,443 by not only making them feel important and proud, 403 00:47:58,526 --> 00:48:01,320 but also more open. 404 00:48:04,907 --> 00:48:07,159 [Davis] The Beijing Olympics 405 00:48:07,242 --> 00:48:10,788 were billed as China's coming-out party to the world. 406 00:48:10,871 --> 00:48:14,834 Tremendous display of political spectacle, 407 00:48:14,917 --> 00:48:20,548 welding together culture and politics in this very deliberate way. 408 00:48:22,216 --> 00:48:25,010 I don't think there's any way to get around the fact 409 00:48:25,094 --> 00:48:27,054 that there's a real dark side to that. 410 00:48:27,597 --> 00:48:31,934 They displaced 1.5 million people in Beijing, 411 00:48:32,017 --> 00:48:34,979 and tremendous ramping up of surveillance... 412 00:48:35,062 --> 00:48:37,356 People read this as a political statement, 413 00:48:37,439 --> 00:48:39,734 that it was an expression of state power, 414 00:48:39,817 --> 00:48:44,363 and it was a coordinated, cultural spectacle meant to be awe-inspiring. 415 00:48:44,446 --> 00:48:46,866 It's a political thing that you need to talk about, 416 00:48:46,949 --> 00:48:50,035 when you talk about how art interacts with a big event like this. 417 00:48:51,036 --> 00:48:53,539 His role in it is... 418 00:48:54,456 --> 00:48:58,210 Part of its meaning is that it was a piece of propaganda. 419 00:48:59,587 --> 00:49:02,297 People always want to ask me, 420 00:49:02,381 --> 00:49:08,804 "Why do you collaborate with the Chinese government on these projects?" 421 00:49:11,390 --> 00:49:16,896 But everywhere in the world, artists work for their own governments 422 00:49:18,147 --> 00:49:19,940 on projects like the Olympics opening ceremony. 423 00:49:20,566 --> 00:49:22,943 For example, for the London Olympics, Damien Hirst designed 424 00:49:23,027 --> 00:49:26,614 a national flag-inspired stage set for the arena. 425 00:49:26,697 --> 00:49:31,786 But this sort of thing is only an issue if you are Chinese. 426 00:49:31,869 --> 00:49:38,208 Working for my country only becomes problematic 427 00:49:38,292 --> 00:49:40,836 because I was born in China. 428 00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:42,755 [indistinct chatter] 429 00:49:50,179 --> 00:49:51,972 [man talking indistinctly over radio] 430 00:50:06,153 --> 00:50:11,158 So this is the only place 431 00:50:11,241 --> 00:50:13,828 we can raise the Sky Ladder. 432 00:50:15,746 --> 00:50:19,750 Even though I invited all my friends from across the country, 433 00:50:19,834 --> 00:50:23,378 the best airship guy, the best technical director, 434 00:50:23,462 --> 00:50:25,130 the best firework designer, etc... 435 00:50:25,214 --> 00:50:27,592 It's the people on this island. 436 00:50:27,675 --> 00:50:32,680 They also deserve to have the best in China. 437 00:50:32,763 --> 00:50:34,264 Cai's doing this with the farmers from here. 438 00:50:34,348 --> 00:50:35,933 There is a lot of meaning in doing it with the farmers. 439 00:50:36,016 --> 00:50:39,394 Anyone really serious about this project 440 00:50:39,478 --> 00:50:43,148 would be asking the People's Liberation Army for help. 441 00:50:44,191 --> 00:50:47,402 [Shanshan Xia] Every time he's trying to realize a project like Sky Ladder, 442 00:50:47,486 --> 00:50:49,404 we need many supports from local people. 443 00:50:52,366 --> 00:50:55,535 Without their help, without their passion, 444 00:50:55,620 --> 00:50:59,081 and without their involvement, we cannot realize it at all. 445 00:51:00,207 --> 00:51:01,626 [Masatoshi] This ship is going to move to here? 446 00:51:01,709 --> 00:51:05,545 [Cai] Yes. From here to here. So it should be achievable. 447 00:51:05,630 --> 00:51:10,801 And then there's no need to attach a chain or anything to this. 448 00:51:10,885 --> 00:51:12,511 [Sang Luo] Tatsumi has been technical director 449 00:51:12,594 --> 00:51:14,304 with Cai Studio for over 20 years. 450 00:51:14,388 --> 00:51:16,932 Whenever Cai's doing his projects around the world, 451 00:51:17,016 --> 00:51:18,976 Tatsumi will fly from Japan. 452 00:51:19,059 --> 00:51:20,519 He keeps saying to Cai that, 453 00:51:20,602 --> 00:51:23,939 "This won't happen. You won't be able to do it. This is stupid. 454 00:51:24,732 --> 00:51:27,902 The project is way too complicated, and you are not gonna make it." 455 00:51:28,610 --> 00:51:30,821 [Cai and Masatoshi speaking Japanese] 456 00:51:32,572 --> 00:51:35,117 Because it will touch the electric wire. 457 00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:38,370 This angle. If you put it in here it will hit, so you can't do it there. 458 00:51:38,453 --> 00:51:40,414 It's diagonal, so if you don't make it straight... 459 00:51:46,003 --> 00:51:48,130 [chuckling] 460 00:51:55,763 --> 00:51:56,931 Ooh. 461 00:52:01,226 --> 00:52:02,728 [chuckling] 462 00:52:08,192 --> 00:52:11,987 Very calming. Very peaceful. 463 00:52:36,386 --> 00:52:40,640 Before I started the project, I put a lot of thought into it. 464 00:52:40,725 --> 00:52:43,853 I wanted it to be more than just style. 465 00:52:46,521 --> 00:52:49,775 My first aim was to develop environmentally friendly fireworks. 466 00:52:49,859 --> 00:52:53,153 My second idea was to find a way for the fireworks to interact 467 00:52:54,864 --> 00:52:57,324 with a video display. 468 00:52:57,407 --> 00:53:00,077 The third idea was political. 469 00:53:00,160 --> 00:53:02,496 As a country, we no longer need 470 00:53:02,579 --> 00:53:08,335 to depend on bombastic ceremonies with thousands of performers, gongs and drums. 471 00:53:08,418 --> 00:53:13,298 Rather, I hoped we could engage people through a joke or a story. 472 00:53:25,185 --> 00:53:28,147 Firstly, the video is gone. 473 00:53:30,315 --> 00:53:32,985 Then the story was dropped. 474 00:53:34,153 --> 00:53:36,405 So now the risk is 475 00:53:36,488 --> 00:53:42,702 the ceremony might become a standard fireworks show. 476 00:53:51,128 --> 00:53:52,880 Why am I still here? 477 00:53:58,886 --> 00:54:00,846 We have to make being environmentally friendly 478 00:54:00,930 --> 00:54:02,597 a characteristic of this firework performance. 479 00:54:02,681 --> 00:54:09,438 It can make our ceremony a tipping point. 480 00:54:09,521 --> 00:54:12,066 Furthermore, making fireworks environmentally friendly 481 00:54:12,149 --> 00:54:13,608 has to be done sooner or later. 482 00:54:13,692 --> 00:54:17,905 The whole industry has realized how important it is to its survival, 483 00:54:17,988 --> 00:54:21,200 so it's something people must do. 484 00:54:21,283 --> 00:54:24,411 [man] The innovation is great, but as I mentioned, 485 00:54:24,494 --> 00:54:26,705 security and stability are equally important. 486 00:54:26,788 --> 00:54:33,587 If these departments disapprove, I'll have to respect them. 487 00:54:33,670 --> 00:54:40,177 I'm telling you, the government is here to help you. 488 00:54:40,260 --> 00:54:45,933 You have to figure out something creative with all these chains on you. 489 00:54:46,016 --> 00:54:48,268 I'm a pragmatist. 490 00:54:48,352 --> 00:54:51,480 Mao taught us to be practical and realistic. 491 00:54:51,563 --> 00:54:56,610 So, overall, our measures are in accordance with your idea. 492 00:54:56,693 --> 00:54:58,946 We'll support you only when you follow the rules. 493 00:55:02,074 --> 00:55:04,326 [speaking Mandarin] 494 00:55:34,523 --> 00:55:40,779 [Cai] It seems I have compromised my work on this time after time. 495 00:55:43,198 --> 00:55:47,286 I feel awfully frustrated. 496 00:55:47,953 --> 00:55:49,871 [speaking Mandarin] 497 00:55:52,582 --> 00:55:54,834 [Yimou] Art needs to be free, 498 00:55:55,835 --> 00:55:58,422 but these projects have political requirements, 499 00:55:59,423 --> 00:56:03,468 and one can do nothing about it. 500 00:56:04,636 --> 00:56:06,680 This is China's current situation. 501 00:56:06,763 --> 00:56:09,183 I personally am very familiar with these circumstances. 502 00:56:09,266 --> 00:56:14,188 So when you talk about creative work on these projects, 503 00:56:14,271 --> 00:56:18,275 those artists who grew up in free Western countries 504 00:56:18,358 --> 00:56:21,987 are not able to understand this. 505 00:56:22,988 --> 00:56:26,700 We really envy them, 506 00:56:26,783 --> 00:56:32,289 but there is nothing we can do about it. 507 00:56:33,248 --> 00:56:35,709 [Wen Ma] Every project, there's always a thing. 508 00:56:35,792 --> 00:56:39,004 "This is what I'm doing. Everything else doesn't matter. It's fluff. 509 00:56:39,088 --> 00:56:42,257 But I have to have the fluff to protect the center." 510 00:56:43,133 --> 00:56:48,222 The footprints was that for the Olympics. 511 00:56:48,305 --> 00:56:50,557 [interviewer] What was the artistic concept that he had 512 00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:53,268 at the heart of what he did at APEC? 513 00:56:53,352 --> 00:56:54,769 I don't know it. 514 00:56:57,272 --> 00:56:59,191 There was one, when he started. 515 00:56:59,274 --> 00:57:02,277 But it was lost along the way, and he knew it was lost. 516 00:57:02,361 --> 00:57:04,363 That's why I don't understand why he did it. 517 00:57:19,503 --> 00:57:21,421 [crowd cheering] 518 00:57:32,724 --> 00:57:34,351 [inaudible] 519 00:57:50,617 --> 00:57:53,495 [Cai in Mandarin] I always worry about mixing art and politics. 520 00:57:55,289 --> 00:57:57,249 - Uh... - [performers drumming and cheering] 521 00:57:57,332 --> 00:58:03,380 [Cai] I put myself in a difficult position. 522 00:58:06,050 --> 00:58:11,013 But, as artists, can't we help change the system by working within it? 523 00:59:49,111 --> 00:59:51,029 [Cai] He likes making sculptures of small animals, very much. 524 00:59:51,113 --> 00:59:55,367 There are nearly 1,000 pieces here 525 00:59:55,450 --> 00:59:57,952 and some smaller ones are kept in the boxes below. 526 00:59:58,995 --> 01:00:00,289 [Cai] Why do you like little animals, Hu? 527 01:00:00,372 --> 01:00:01,623 Why do you like small animals? 528 01:00:01,706 --> 01:00:06,670 [Hu] I really like small animals, especially puppies. 529 01:00:06,753 --> 01:00:08,797 [Cai] Did you keep animals in your house before? 530 01:00:08,880 --> 01:00:12,134 [Hu] I once kept dogs, but all my dogs were brutish 531 01:00:13,343 --> 01:00:16,346 and eventually were beaten to death by other people. 532 01:00:19,098 --> 01:00:21,726 - [Hu's son] Let me clean it up. - It's okay. You don't have to. 533 01:00:21,810 --> 01:00:23,853 Actually, I cleaned up in here a little bit today. 534 01:00:23,937 --> 01:00:25,855 Look, he usually sits here and watches DVDs. [chuckles] 535 01:00:25,939 --> 01:00:28,608 - Does he sleep here? - Yes, this is my father's bed. 536 01:00:29,526 --> 01:00:32,028 He usually lies here and watches DVDs. 537 01:00:32,111 --> 01:00:34,113 [Cai] This DVD player is so small. 538 01:00:35,031 --> 01:00:36,491 You sleep here? 539 01:00:36,575 --> 01:00:38,117 Yes, I sleep on the upper bed. 540 01:00:43,915 --> 01:00:49,921 This looks like a real artist's home. 541 01:00:56,970 --> 01:01:01,558 [Hu] I was like a lunatic when my wife passed away. 542 01:01:02,559 --> 01:01:06,355 I had no purpose or anything, like my life had come to an end. 543 01:01:08,232 --> 01:01:14,988 Then I started to play with mud and clay. 544 01:01:15,071 --> 01:01:20,202 It was like being on drugs. 545 01:01:20,285 --> 01:01:23,288 I couldn't bear one day without making sculptures. 546 01:01:23,372 --> 01:01:26,666 It's just like being on drugs. 547 01:01:29,211 --> 01:01:32,171 I'd wake up at 6:00 or 6:30 every morning, 548 01:01:32,256 --> 01:01:35,800 brush my teeth, have some noodles and then start making sculptures. 549 01:01:37,135 --> 01:01:38,345 [interviewer in English] Is there something 550 01:01:38,428 --> 01:01:42,599 that you like particularly, collaborating with untrained artists? 551 01:01:42,682 --> 01:01:46,603 [Cai in Mandarin] Yes, a lot of artists do things that are too commercial. 552 01:01:46,686 --> 01:01:51,691 It lacks some compulsive and sincere emotion 553 01:01:51,775 --> 01:01:57,155 that should exist in all art. 554 01:01:58,197 --> 01:02:01,075 Collaborating with them will always remind me 555 01:02:01,159 --> 01:02:06,498 of the pleasure I felt and my original purpose for doing art. 556 01:02:16,466 --> 01:02:23,432 [Liu Xiandong] For any artist, once they reach a certain level at a certain age 557 01:02:23,515 --> 01:02:26,268 and once they've become famous enough, 558 01:02:26,351 --> 01:02:29,020 they face this problem. 559 01:02:29,103 --> 01:02:32,190 They have to confront what their original intention was. 560 01:02:34,108 --> 01:02:36,611 They will also face a lot of people's questions and doubts. 561 01:02:36,695 --> 01:02:40,615 The more successful an artist is, 562 01:02:40,699 --> 01:02:44,160 the more dangerous a situation is. 563 01:02:49,082 --> 01:02:51,167 [speaking Japanese] 564 01:02:51,250 --> 01:02:52,794 [Wen Ma in English] I mean, when you're saying, 565 01:02:52,877 --> 01:02:57,882 "I want to go to a nuclear test ground and do an explosion out of my hand," 566 01:02:57,966 --> 01:03:00,594 you know, everyone's gonna be like, "You gotta be fucking crazy. 567 01:03:00,677 --> 01:03:02,136 No way! We're not gonna let you." 568 01:03:02,220 --> 01:03:05,056 "Yes, I wanna do it." "No, we're not gonna let you," 569 01:03:05,139 --> 01:03:08,184 versus, "Here's $2 million. 570 01:03:08,267 --> 01:03:10,562 What do you wanna do? Anything you wanna do." 571 01:03:10,645 --> 01:03:12,689 Okay, how can a person not be different? 572 01:03:13,982 --> 01:03:17,151 When you haven't gone very far, it's easy for you to pick one step. 573 01:03:17,235 --> 01:03:19,529 You've been to a place where you've never been before. 574 01:03:19,613 --> 01:03:22,281 But if you've gone as far as him, 575 01:03:22,366 --> 01:03:24,576 you know, it's harder to take one more step out. 576 01:03:24,659 --> 01:03:27,120 So, how do you challenge yourself? 577 01:03:37,255 --> 01:03:40,342 [Cai in Mandarin] Sky Ladder is the most difficult project of all. 578 01:03:48,392 --> 01:03:52,228 This will be my fourth attempt to realize it. 579 01:03:53,605 --> 01:03:56,441 This time, I'm doing it for myself, 580 01:03:56,525 --> 01:03:59,027 and my family 581 01:03:59,110 --> 01:04:03,448 and for my grandmother in particular, who just turned 100 years old. 582 01:04:07,994 --> 01:04:10,204 [Hong Hong] To this day, I still think 583 01:04:10,288 --> 01:04:12,791 Sky Ladder is close to impossible to realize. 584 01:04:13,875 --> 01:04:18,254 But Cai is very insistent on making this project work. 585 01:04:18,337 --> 01:04:22,050 He's so obsessed and determined. 586 01:04:23,176 --> 01:04:24,636 [thunder rumbling] 587 01:04:35,397 --> 01:04:37,315 [indistinct chatter] 588 01:04:42,070 --> 01:04:46,783 [Hong Hong] Making Sky Ladder is just like burning money. 589 01:04:46,866 --> 01:04:50,203 It's so expensive to produce. 590 01:04:50,286 --> 01:04:53,790 Do you know how much money we're putting into this? 591 01:04:53,873 --> 01:04:56,375 Plus, we have to execute all of this in secret. 592 01:04:56,460 --> 01:04:58,294 How many people will get to see it? 593 01:04:58,377 --> 01:05:00,547 We can't even invite an audience to come and see it. 594 01:05:01,130 --> 01:05:04,968 This time, Sky Ladder is just for Cai's grandmother. 595 01:05:05,051 --> 01:05:06,553 That's all. 596 01:05:10,348 --> 01:05:12,434 [Cai] Listen, if we can't solve this problem, 597 01:05:12,517 --> 01:05:14,352 we cannot proceed with this project. 598 01:05:14,436 --> 01:05:17,606 We will stop all the work, and we will simply withdraw. 599 01:05:17,689 --> 01:05:19,774 No need to spend all the money. 600 01:05:19,858 --> 01:05:21,025 Because it really is impossible. 601 01:05:21,109 --> 01:05:24,696 If it's broadcast tonight on Quanzhou TV channel, 602 01:05:24,779 --> 01:05:27,449 there will be seas of people watching at the seaside tomorrow. 603 01:05:27,532 --> 01:05:31,244 When the airship comes, everybody will be taking photos and publicizing it. 604 01:05:31,327 --> 01:05:33,287 Anything like this is impossible. 605 01:05:33,371 --> 01:05:37,000 Under the sky of the Communist Party, it's absolutely forbidden. 606 01:06:00,899 --> 01:06:02,776 [workers talking indistinctly] 607 01:06:20,293 --> 01:06:23,462 This balloon is pulled by the cables. 608 01:06:24,548 --> 01:06:30,804 Now, they are trying to lock the frame onto a steel cable inside the balloon. 609 01:06:30,887 --> 01:06:32,597 [speaking Mandarin] 610 01:06:35,517 --> 01:06:39,854 The frame will flip over when the balloon rises. 611 01:06:43,316 --> 01:06:46,903 We have to ignite at 3:30 a.m. 612 01:06:48,071 --> 01:06:50,364 Yes, so time is at stake. 613 01:06:50,448 --> 01:06:52,158 The problem right now is that the balloon may break 614 01:06:52,241 --> 01:06:53,660 if it's inflated too quickly. 615 01:06:54,953 --> 01:06:56,412 [man] If we could have more time... 616 01:06:56,495 --> 01:06:59,040 All effort will be in vain once the daylight kicks in, 617 01:06:59,123 --> 01:07:00,499 so we need to be fast. 618 01:07:00,584 --> 01:07:02,460 [workers talking indistinctly] 619 01:07:07,506 --> 01:07:09,217 [speaking Mandarin] 620 01:07:11,094 --> 01:07:12,804 [shouting indistinctly] 621 01:07:48,673 --> 01:07:49,924 [woman in English] Fifteen seconds. 622 01:07:52,260 --> 01:07:53,720 [woman speaking Mandarin] 623 01:07:55,346 --> 01:07:57,556 Grandma, it's Hong Hong here. 624 01:07:57,641 --> 01:08:01,102 Yes, it's your Guo-Qiang. 625 01:08:01,185 --> 01:08:06,107 [Cai] I'm going to create an artwork, an explosion, for you to see. 626 01:08:06,190 --> 01:08:10,028 You stay awake. I am about to start! 627 01:08:10,111 --> 01:08:11,821 [speaking Mandarin] 628 01:08:18,244 --> 01:08:19,996 [indistinct chatter] 629 01:08:23,582 --> 01:08:25,168 Twelve. 630 01:08:25,251 --> 01:08:27,086 Eleven. 631 01:08:27,170 --> 01:08:30,089 Ten. Nine. 632 01:08:30,173 --> 01:08:32,466 Eight. 633 01:08:32,550 --> 01:08:34,343 Seven. 634 01:08:34,427 --> 01:08:36,512 Six. 635 01:08:36,595 --> 01:08:38,556 Five. 636 01:08:38,640 --> 01:08:40,349 Four. 637 01:08:40,433 --> 01:08:42,644 Three. 638 01:08:42,727 --> 01:08:44,395 Two. 639 01:08:44,478 --> 01:08:46,773 One. 640 01:08:46,856 --> 01:08:49,317 Zero! Ignite! 641 01:08:49,400 --> 01:08:50,902 [exploding] 642 01:09:33,111 --> 01:09:34,988 [nurse speaking Mandarin] 643 01:09:41,160 --> 01:09:42,996 [speaking Mandarin] 644 01:10:42,096 --> 01:10:45,516 Listen to that sound, full of power and grandeur! 645 01:10:48,311 --> 01:10:50,521 [woman 1] The project is finally launched. 646 01:10:50,604 --> 01:10:52,648 It's finally a safe day to do this. 647 01:10:52,731 --> 01:10:54,317 It's very hard work. 648 01:10:54,400 --> 01:10:57,361 These people have been through some difficult days. 649 01:10:57,445 --> 01:10:58,612 [Hong Hong cheering] 650 01:11:04,035 --> 01:11:06,704 Grandma, did you see? 651 01:11:08,331 --> 01:11:09,958 - [grandmother speaking Mandarin] - [chuckles] 652 01:11:10,041 --> 01:11:12,418 - Isn't your grandson awesome? - [both laughing] 653 01:11:16,005 --> 01:11:18,174 It's amazing, amazing, amazing. 654 01:11:18,257 --> 01:11:21,260 You can go back to sleep now! 655 01:11:21,344 --> 01:11:25,139 Go to sleep. Sleep. Eat something if you're hungry, though. 656 01:11:39,445 --> 01:11:44,367 It was very good, wasn't it? The ascending explosion. 657 01:11:44,450 --> 01:11:45,784 [man] Very beautiful! 658 01:11:45,869 --> 01:11:49,497 It looked beautiful? Very beautiful. 659 01:11:49,580 --> 01:11:51,124 Thank you! 660 01:11:51,207 --> 01:11:52,917 [all speaking Mandarin] 661 01:11:54,878 --> 01:11:57,255 I need to give a hug to Kang, too. 662 01:11:58,840 --> 01:12:04,137 We were so worried! Thank you for the hard work! 663 01:12:04,220 --> 01:12:06,097 Manager Yu. 664 01:12:06,180 --> 01:12:07,390 You are very welcome. 665 01:12:07,473 --> 01:12:09,600 Amazing sound! The sound of the flame was beautiful! 666 01:12:19,443 --> 01:12:24,908 Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang is our relative by marriage. [laughs] 667 01:12:24,991 --> 01:12:30,704 His younger brother is my son-in-law. 668 01:12:30,788 --> 01:12:36,544 Mr. Cai Guo-Qiang has made a great contribution to our hometown, Quanzhou. 669 01:12:36,627 --> 01:12:39,005 This gunpowder project accomplished here 670 01:12:39,088 --> 01:12:42,758 is the realization of his dream from 21 years ago. 671 01:12:43,634 --> 01:12:49,807 We, as his relatives, as Quanzhou people, feel very proud. 672 01:12:49,891 --> 01:12:52,435 - [Cai] Full satisfaction! - [all cheering and laughing] 673 01:12:52,518 --> 01:12:56,480 [Cai] It's amazing, unbelievable! 674 01:12:56,564 --> 01:12:59,650 - Small village, huge potential! - [all laughing] 675 01:12:59,733 --> 01:13:03,404 This humble place is honored by your presence, Master Cai! 676 01:13:03,487 --> 01:13:05,323 We tried many places throughout the world but failed, 677 01:13:05,406 --> 01:13:07,200 only to find success at Huiyu Island! 678 01:13:08,952 --> 01:13:10,411 Terrific. 679 01:13:10,494 --> 01:13:14,165 [man] You have been around the globe, but end up making it at your hometown. 680 01:13:14,248 --> 01:13:16,084 [all speaking in Mandarin] 681 01:13:19,795 --> 01:13:21,839 [crowd cheering and laughing] 682 01:13:27,053 --> 01:13:28,762 [indistinct chatter] 683 01:13:36,895 --> 01:13:39,482 [Cai] Thank heavens. 684 01:13:39,565 --> 01:13:42,485 After so many difficult days, we managed it. 685 01:14:01,004 --> 01:14:02,505 [sobbing] 686 01:14:04,840 --> 01:14:06,217 [laughs] 687 01:14:06,968 --> 01:14:08,802 [speaking in Mandarin] 688 01:14:17,520 --> 01:14:18,687 [Hong Hong sniffles] 689 01:14:18,771 --> 01:14:20,064 [exhales deeply] 690 01:14:51,554 --> 01:14:53,597 [ethereal music playing] 691 01:14:53,599 --> 01:14:58,599 Subtitles by explosiveskull