Sunday May 27, 2012

China opens Olympics spectacularly

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  • 0

    rajakumar

    Way to go China, Olympics 2008 and 11,028 athletes of 204 nations.

    Let the biggest sport show in world begin, from today till 24.8.2008.

    The most exciting days,every 4 years for all sport fans.

  • 0

    flammenwerfer

    yep, sure was a very impressive extravaganza superbly choreographed and executed, if anything it was a tad too long!

    The NHK announcers though were on the other hand annoyingly inept and uninformed which was glaringly noticeable in the parade of nations. Australia come in: "Ah Ian Sorpu senshu!" come on is that the best they can do? he has retired and not present, can't they at least learn the name of one star in the Australian team? give me a break.

    USA come in and it's, " Hansen no Kitajima rival!" yet no camera is zoomed in on Hansen, its zoomed in for about 10 secs on Tyson Gay, the sprinter at the heart of a much more widely anticipated showdown with Bolt and Powell it the Mens 100m sprint. Do the announcers comment? no, 10 secs of silence as none of them know who he is - come on! The US basketball team on screen....no mention. The 14 y.o British diver Tom Daley was on screen 3-4 times - obviously a new darling of the Olympics, but again not one of them knew.

    NZ - "ah allru Bracksu!" ah they are not there at the Olympics guys.

    Some well informed interesting commentary would have been nice, not the inane banter that was offered.

  • 0

    Shumatsu_Samurai

    All I can say is "boooooring!"

    Sure it may have entertained people with little taste, but from a critical point of view it wasn't stimulating at all. I saw it as a rather obvious attempt at nationalistic back-slapping (e.g. "lookie what we invented!").

  • 0

    Richard_the_First

    I was surprised by NHK's footage. I assumed they would spend the entirety zooming on on the Japanese athletes forming up in the centre of the stadium but rarely did so we go to see the rest of the world's heroes too. (for once)

  • 0

    Terrikus

    I thought it was very well done. Good for them.

    All I can say is "boooooring!"

    Sure it may have entertained people with little taste, but from a critical point of view it wasn't stimulating at all. I saw it as a rather obvious attempt at nationalistic back-slapping (e.g. "lookie what we invented!").

    Well thank YOU Mr. Critic

  • 0

    flammenwerfer

    I was surprised by NHK's footage. I assumed they would spend the entirety zooming on on the Japanese athletes forming up in the centre of the stadium but rarely did so we go to see the rest of the world's heroes too. (for once)

    thats because most of it wasnt their feed most likely, it would have been a shared feed and all broadcasters would have had the same footage. That's why the commenatators were clueless to most of the sports stars last night.

  • 0

    Triple888

    It was good! I enjoy all of it! Good pat on the back to the organizers!

    (e.g. "lookie what we invented!").

    Maybe you misunderstood the theme. Doesn't really matter. Don't get me started on the Greek ceremony...

  • 0

    USNinJapan2

    The soldiers goose-stepping the Olmpic flag to the flag pole was a bit much, but the lighting of the stadium torch was incredible and ingenious. When I saw the torch bearer start flying up on wires I thought he would just go straight up to light the torch, which would have been just ordinary, but I loved how he ran around the top of the stadium as the scroll unrolled to show scenes from the torch relay around the world. That was awesome. Gotta hand it to China, they certainly did put on one hell of a show. A for effort and A for execution. Congrats China!

  • 0

    Ninjazilla

    Um can you say Tacky and overdone??

  • 0

    YangYong

    Absolutely incredible opening. Full 10, although it could be a 100. I want one of the suits with light on, cool.

  • 0

    flammenwerfer

    USNinJapan2 - couldnt agree more, the goose steeping was lame and out of place. The rest of the ceremony was definitely an "A".

    ninjazilla - dont be so cynical.

  • 0

    ExPrinceska

    It was a very beautiful and dramatic ceremony, especially the countdown with the drums of light, the lighted model of the Earth and the starting of the Olympic fire. I do not find the ceremony nationalistic. China has the right to be proud of many things because it has given a lot to the world. Many ideas in the opening ceremny were very artful and moving.

  • 0

    Pukey2

    (e.g. "lookie what we invented!").

    I thought you were also going to say something like chop-suey. One word - jealousy. I suppose you want the Chinese to go back to their mud huts. Anyway, if it's boring, then switch the TV OFF! That's my advice. Even I do that when it gets too much.

    I thought the spectators on the whole were VERY gracious. As well as the expected welcome for the Chinese, Taiwanese and North Korean athletes, there was a huge applause for the Americans, especially considering they put the Sudanese immigrant at the front, just to rile the Chinese. And, as far as I could hear, no booing for the British and the French, just applause. Compare that to the welcome the torch relay got when visiting those countries.

  • 0

    rjd_jr

    Great for the Chinese hosts who put on a superb opening ceremony.

    Though I have to admit seeing professional athletes like the NBA brats and tennis stars leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

  • 0

    maryhinge

    Fantastic performance. I bet the Brits are crapping themselves about what to do in 2012!

    Scottish bagpipes, miltary tatooo....

  • 0

    DenshaDeGO

    All I can say is "boooooring!"

    Totally. I was watching The Bourne Supremacy instead.

  • 0

    Kreza23

    flammenwerfer - I agree, the silence when Tyson Gay and other very famous athletes were shown definitely showed a lack of sporting knowledge, but I saw nothing wrong with the "Ah Ian Sorpu senshu!", " Hansen no Kitajima rival!", "ah allru Bracksu!" comments. Did you understand the rest of what they were saying? Because they were simply giving backgrounds on famous athletes from respective countries and making things relate to Japanese viewers. The All-Blacks comment came from seeing the New Zealand team wearing a predominantly black uniform at the opening ceremonies, and they were making that connection for the viewers.

    The ceremony itself was breathtaking at a number of times, and seemed long at others, but all in all, a wonderful show!

  • 0

    TRUTHxHURTS

    I am watching the recorded version in Canada. It is great to watch. And our television commentary was great. England really has a disadvantage. To bad baseball and sofball will not be playing in the summer olympics for ten years or whatever the timeline is.

    Batman Begins is showing too !!!

  • 0

    dr_jones

    Imagine the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony starts and nobody watches! And that's exactly what I've done, not watching! Imagine the Japanese team had instead of Japanese/Chinese flags got out Japanese/Tibetan flags! Can you say surprise! Of course they would have been disqualified and brought away by Chinese guards while non-Chinese journalists would have been beaten down and their cameras destroyed by the police. Now they are just hypocritic chicken hearts instead of heroes. China shouldn't use words like "Peace", "Nature" and "One World" because it just sounds foul. There is no one world for them, just one China!

    "TV audience was 4 billion worldwide"

    ... of which 3 billion were Chinese!

  • 0

    teaabe

    i will say this again, i believe that all national flags should be banned from the olympics. it is a kind of peacetime fascism. note the us and its disproportionate numbers vs. india and it's paltry reps.

  • 0

    teaabe

    isn't that 1.3 billion?

  • 0

    Terrikus

    isn't that 1.3 billion?

    No no, Chinese now account for half the population of the world. Funny how people just start to make up figures when it doesn't align with their China hate.

  • 0

    SuperLib

    I liked the opening, thought it was well done. Very modern with an emphasis on history and culture. It's not that easy to make those two go hand in hand but they did a very good job.

  • 0

    PepinGalarga

    i thought it was breathtaking. too bad i wasnt there to see it myself. Beijing will be a huge party for the next 2 weeks. actually, i might arrive there shortly after the games finish...

    goose stepping was a throwback to the berlin games...

    The NBC 12 hour delay was really sucked! i had to watch on some web feed (low-res). i cant believe they expect to get audience all excited about competition if they keep that up for 17 days. no suspense, just get the news from and feeds from other sites...

    i was surprised by the number of beauties in the show, but when they pan to the audience the ratio would drop to 1:1000...

  • 0

    Terrikus

    i was surprised by the number of beauties in the show, but when they pan to the audience the ratio would drop to 1:1000...

    Well, when you have a population of 1.3 billion, you can afford to play with ratios and still come out on top of everyone else :P

  • 0

    drscope

    Its not your deja vu if you think you have seen the opening ceremony before.

    When their vassal country is good at it, why not for China.

    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=GwKWttrEaSM&feature=related

  • 0

    northlondon

    i was surprised by the number of beauties in the show, but when they pan to the audience the ratio would drop to 1:1000...

    A little bit like the ratio between beautiful western women and Chinese women you mean ? Yeah, it would be 1:1000. I notice that a lot of people here have a real paranoia about China. It was a fantastic opening ceremony and we will really struggle to get anywhere near that level in the UK.

  • 0

    Sarge

    If the Japanese women's volleyball team wants to win a medal, they'll have to beat the USA tonight.

  • 0

    dontpanic

    From what I saw of the show it was spectacular, I hope the rest of the games go as smoothly and the focus stays on sport. China's set the bar pretty high for London but I know the boys will rise to the challenge.

  • 0

    apecNetworks

    And soooooooo it begins.........

  • 0

    USNinJapan2

    teaabe

    i will say this again, i believe that all national flags should be banned from the olympics. it is a kind of peacetime fascism. note the us and its disproportionate numbers vs. india and it's paltry reps.

    Peacetime fascism? LOL. Yeah, the Olympics without flags. That's genius. I'm surprised you haven't suggested that they should do away with the gold, silver, and bronze medals because they represent class discrimination or something equally ridiculous...

  • 0

    hikes

    chinese had a very very difficult work to do. They had to compet the magnificent and breathtaking artistic masterpiece of 2004 opening show. In general terms they made an ambitoius and good work, but seriously based on what dimitris papaioanou made in 2004. In my opinion it was difficult and it is very difficult to see in the future an opening show with the superb simplicity,perfection and delicacy of 2004 show.

  • 0

    jaychong

    oh.the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony is beautiful,at least it open out its history and culture.besides, the sweat of many people was needed in the resplendence Opening Ceremony .

  • 0

    daftpunk1976

    Good luck beijing! Good job! It's been a long long time, Now it's china's turn.

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