Movie festival opens as Hungary and China celebrate friendship

Jackie Chan, the famous Hong Kong action movie star, brings his latest film Kung-Fu Yoga, a domestic comedy featuring a combination of the cultural essences of China and India, to the Chinese Film Festival in Hungary on Sunday. [Photo by Fu Jing/chinadaily.com.cn]

Moviegoers in Hungary can watch five Chinese films starring renowned Chinese actors including Jackie Chan from Sunday to Thursday during this year's Chinese Film Festival in Hungary, which kicked off in Budapest on Sunday afternoon.

Liu Qibao, head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and Balog Zoltan, Hungary's human resources minister, jointly inaugurated the festival, which aims to boost mutual understanding between the countries.

Liu is scheduled to meet Hungarian leaders and attend other cultural and academic exchanges on Monday before heading to Greece. The trip follows a visit to Morocco aimed at increasing cultural cooperation.

Jackie Chan, the famous Hong Kong action movie star, has brought his latest film Kung-Fu Yoga, a domestic comedy featuring the cultural essences of China and India to the festival.

As an ambassador of the festival, he said the five films featured are among the best titles from China and said he hopes moviegoers in Hungary will enjoy watching them.

"I also found that Hungary is a nice place to produce films as well because this country has such a long history and has enjoyed a richness of cultures," Chan said. "And also I found that the cost is relatively low and affordable if we produce films here."

Chan met fans before the launch of festival and sang a song with students from the Sino-Hungarian School in Budapest.

Gabor Cserkesz, president of Budapest-based Chinese Art Center is a keen fan of Chan and wore a black T-shirt with Chan's name on it when he met him.

"I think this ambassador (Chan) can effectively promote Chinese culture and helps Hungarians to understand China better," said Cserkesz. "And movies are a good medium to for us to know each other."

Minister Zoltan also talked about the role the movies play in bridging understanding between nations, and emphasized that China and Hungary should deepen their friendship and partnership.

"China is a big country and economic power with a huge population; and we are small with much less population. Our economy has started to pick up," said Zoltan in his speech at the launch. "But in the same way that China is keen to develop a friendship with our small country, so we also hope to deepen the relationship with China. And the two countries can develop such a friendship that both sides care about each other."

He said that people in modern times are inclined to forget the past and behave as if everything was created today.

"We have even forgot the ancient Silk Road," he lamented.

Praising China's Belt and Road Initiative, he said: "We need to rebuild the Silk Road, linking the world from the East to West and also from the West to the East."

Hungary is a gateway in the Central and Eastern Europe regions and, after China established an annual summit framework with the 16 countries in the region, both sides have improved cultural cooperation.

Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, is among 28 state leaders who have confirmed that they will attend the Belt and Road Initiative Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on May 14 and 15.

China, Hungary and Serbia have also agreed to build a high-speed railway link between Budapest and Belgrade. They plan to start work on the project after the European Commission completes its approval procedure.