Movie director’s green walk or talk?

CHINA WATCH Director Chen Kaige was named 2006’s ungreen-person-of-the-year for reportedly destroying the natural environment at Shangri-La in Yunnan province while shooting for his previous movie.

He has now returned to the limelight to be “green” when shooting his new film in Beijing’s Forbidden City this time, according to Chinadaily.

Chen is one of the most famous directors in China with his well-known movie Farewell My Concubine.

But his movie “The Promise” is causing all kinds of fuss. It is reported that Chen dyed the trees in the Garden of Perfect Splendor in Beijing for that film, and the colour on those trees has stayed for two years.

Last year, Chen was fined 90,000 yuan (US$11,250) for littering and destroying vegetation while shooting his 42-million-dollar mythological epic “The Promise” at a scenic nature reserve in Shangri La, in southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

Chen has already started shooting the Mei Lanfang movie in Beijing’s Forbidden City, the imperial palace built in 1406 and a major tourist attraction in Beijing.

Chen was careful about the environmental issues this time, Friday’s Shanghai Morning Post quoted a member of the film crew as saying. “A meeting was held before we started shooting in the palace. Smoking, littering, touching and damaging cultural relics are strictly forbidden,” he said.

But is it a green walk or just talk? We are too familiar with news created by directors who simply to boost the box office takings when a new film comes out.

Anyway, I will see his new movie to check his promise. See, their trick works!