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Let a thousand film students compete
(The New York Times)
Updated: 2005-10-04 09:12
Wen Guiyu thinks back to three years ago, when she and her mother came here
from her small hometown in Hebei Province, after a 12-hour train ride. Arriving
at their destination on Xi Tu Cheng Road, Ms. Wen recalls seeing masses of
people - "10,000 of them." Like her, the crowd was there for one reason: they
were all trying to get into Beijing Film Academy, the most prestigious film
school in China and the largest film school in Asia.
The actress Zhao Wei, in "So Close," is also a
graduate of the Beijing Film Academy. [Strand
Releasing] | With over 3,300 students, including
about 150 international exchange students from countries as distant as the
United States, it offers graduate and undergraduate degrees - and for the lucky
few, a portal to one of the world's most vibrant film cultures.
Struggle is part of the package: Ms. Wen, now a graduating senior in
performing art, had to ace three auditions before she was accepted. "When my
mother saw how difficult the auditions were, she went home and left me there
alone," she recalled. "After I passed the third audition, my mother and I cried
together."
The actress Zhao Wei, in "So Close," is also a graduate of the Beijing Film
Academy.
This year, almost 6,000 aspirants showed up to vie for 30 open spots in the
acting school's bachelor of arts program (which, like most other departments,
charges annual tuition of 10,000 yuan, or roughly $1,250). After a first round
of auditions that stretched over three days, about 2,200 candidates made it to
the next step.
What steeled Ms. Wen to face such daunting odds was what she called her
"passion for performing," and the school's impressive record in the film world.
Alumni include the popular actress and director Xu Jinglei (a teacher at the
school, whose credits include "A Letter From an Unknown Woman"), the dreamboat
Chen Kun ("Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress"), and the starlet Zhao Wei,
known outside of the mainland as the love interest in the Hong Kong director
Stephen Chow's "Shaolin Soccer."
Ms. Wen, 20, has been the acting school's No. 1-ranked student for three
years. But unlike most of her classmates, she dreams of remaining at the academy
as a teacher. "I thought about entering the entertainment industry," she said,
but decided against it because the pressure and the competition are too great.
"But if you become a teacher," she said, "it won't get in the way of you acting
because a lot of professors here are excellent actors, too."
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