Capturing the storm's soul
Filmmaker Su Dike talks about turning a dream into a reality and driving into the heart of a typhoon, Xu Fan reports.
A scene shows a car driven by Su Dike, the film's director, and his team to chase a storm. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Around two years later, Su acquired his first single-lens reflex camera, igniting what would become his second long-term hobby: photography. However, it wasn't until he stumbled upon American filmmaker and storm chaser Sean C. Casey's documentary, Tornado Alley, that these two parallel hobbies intersected.
"It was the first time I had learned that someone could drive a vehicle directly into the eye of a tornado. That 40-minute documentary planted a seed in my heart, making me yearn to create a Chinese equivalent of Tornado Alley," recalls Su.
This adolescent dream is now a reality, documented in high definition. Over the past six years, Su, alongside fellow storm-chasing enthusiasts Wang Lucheng and Zhong Yi, both in their 20s, has traveled more than 60,000 kilometers across 10 provinces, pursuing more than 200 thunderstorms and typhoons along the country's coastline.
