<A> 320º of Movie Viewing in Xi'an

During my first visit to Xi'an, my first destination was Libtong County where the famous Terra Cotta Soldiers Museum is to be found. After having a quick look at the Terra Cotta Warriors in the Pit 1 Museum, Ms. Nina, my guide suggested that we proceed to the Circle Vision Theatre and see the movie first to get a better understanding of the history of the making and unearthing of the terra cotta soldiers before we continue my viewing of the relics. And we did.

The movie was being screened towards the end already when we got into the theatre so we immediately went out to await the next 20-minute screening. Seeing some last parts of any movie takes out the suspense that is usually resolved at the end, that it was a wise decision to view it from the start. We whiled away our time waiting by going around the Museum shops lined-up along the walls within the Museum Souvenir Hall of the Theater building. Alongside one wall, a table was provided for the sale of the reprints of the book entitled Awakened ?Qin? Terra-Cotta Army, which was first published in October 2001 by the Shaanxi Travel and Tourism Press. It is on this table that they stationed an old man said to be one of the farmers who accidentally unearthed on 29 March 1974 some broken pieces of potteries. This led to the discovery of the Terra-Cotta Warriors in the latter part of the year, sometime in October. The Terra Cotta Soldiers were said to have no previously known records until their discovery. I chose a copy of the book and requested it to be signed by the celebrity. Ms. Nina and I missed the handwritten note beside the author that no pictures may be taken. She signalled me to take pictures and I was eagerly getting my camera to have it ready for one shot when a hand belonging to the lady beside the old man, stopped me and waved the camera away while pointing to the handwritten note.

The earlier 20-minute movie was soon over, and this time Nina rushed me in, right in the middle of the circular theater hall. She made me stay beside one of the stainless handle bars. In most of the older known theaters where circle-vision movies are shown, it is said that the audience have to remain standing all throughout the viewing of the whole film as no seats are provided inside the theatre. The audience in the Circle-Vision Theatre at the Terra-Cotta Soldiers Complex are a little luckier with the presence of handle bars that serve several purposes, among which is providing a seat either on a straddling or normal sitting position for taller folks like most of those guys with us in the theatre. They also serve as back rest for the shorter ones like me, as the "U'-pipes are pretty high. The bars are hollow round stainless steel pipes, much like the water pipes but of larger diameter, about 3 or 3.5 inches, bent and formed like an inverted wide angular "U" with the legs anchored to the concrete floor. The horizontal bars of the "U"-pipes' are about a meter in length and the two legs are about 2.5 or 3 feet high, at a perfect right angle with the seat, but smoothly rounded at the corners. Some guests lean on them while some just hold onto them, removing a bit of pressure from the legs and feet. Considering the viewing time of 20 minutes, it is possible that some of the audience might suffer from leg muscles spasm or leg cramps if kept standing straight on, without any support.

Remembering a small incident while waiting for the movie to begin, I feel a wee bit guilty as I almost refused an old man? request, (he sounded American), to seat beside me because his legs were feeling tired. I expected Ms. Nina to come back anytime soon to join me at the bar seats, hence the initial reaction to refuse. Momentarily caught in my indecision, I immediately changed my mind about refusing when I realized that the old man had some leg problem. He told me that he needed to rest his legs a bit, as standing throughout the length of the movie would cause so much strain on one of his legs. He was limping when he got around the bar to sit. So, there he sat next to me, and I was left thinking that Ms. Nina would just have to find another seat. But Ms. Nina did not come back at all. I thought that after having seen the movie maybe a hundred times, she decided not to see it again this time. Or perhaps she just stayed outside when she saw that her place was already occupied. Anyway, whatever business it was that caused Nina? absence, I was glad that I let the old man sit on the bar. When the movie screening was over, the old man gratefully thanked me .

So there I was, at the center with a vantage view of all the screens when the movie eventually started running. I was facing the front screen where the main story began. Soon after the other screens around me save for one, were flashing a continuing account of what was happening in front, beside and behind me. Wow! A sequential account of the story viewed simultaneously in various screens, all around me! The screens were all mounted on the walls following the circular structure of the theatre. It gave me a feeling of being a part of the movie, being there in the middle of it all.

The movie was about the history of the Qin ShiHuang's rule who was known in his youth by the name of Shao Zheng, from the time he started his campaigns against the then existing 6 other kingdoms that he fought and vanquished, to the first time of unification into the 1st Qin Empire, to the fabrication the Terra Cotta Soldiers, to the revolt of the peasants and disgruntled soldiers, to the accidental discovery of some pottery shards by farmers digging water wells, to the unearthing of the Terra Cotta Soldiers. I could see Qin ShiHuang's face, talking right in front of me while encouraging his soldiers to fight his battles. Behind me, I could see the eager faces of all those in the crowd, of his soldiers inspired by his words. Then next, I could see the soldiers fighting using different sharp bladed weapons: from swords, to Pis, to Wu hooks, to daggers, to spears, and bows and arrows, most sharp edges made of bronze. One could almost feel the fierceness while they fight, at same time feel their pains as they get hit by those sharp swords or by the poisonous tips of arrows flying from everywhere. I couldn't help turning around to see the onrushing cavalry behind that seemed running after me and the rest of the audience. I could see the backs of the soldiers in front of me and the intent faces of those behind me, everything happening all at the same time. I was so involved with what I was watching. I had a weird feeling that at any moment I could be hit by either a sword on my face or a spear thrown at my back, if not trampled upon by the thundering hooves of those huge horses. Or perhaps, of being hacked by blades of those angry peasants and disenchanted soldiers during their revolt or even being surrounded by the fires that destroyed some of the timbers and rafters protecting the clay figures of the emperor's soldiers, the latter's production of which, were nearing completion. With all the scenes running horizontally from screen to screen, there was a seamless continuity, giving me an uncanny feeling of being trapped, without any escape. You can say that my imagination was by then working faster than the movie and when the film was finished, I felt as if totally exhausted from the running. I won't blame anyone who would think I was being silly having such imagination.

It is said that a Circle-Vision Movie on the Wonders of China was introduced in 1982 in Florida, at the Disney World by a successfully adventurous high-technology movie-maker IMax Corporation from Ontario, Canada which is widely known for its large-format movie productions using large-format screens, large-format projectors and large-format cameras. In 1990, the Circle-Vision 360?Theater was introduced at the Great Wall Museum in Badaling, of course the story being all about the Great Wall. I have yet to read some materials though on the year when the Circle-Vision Theatre in the Terra Cotta Museum Complex started. Perhaps, at the same time as that of the Badaling Wall Museum had?

I have not counted the screens, but I read it somewhere that a circle-vision theatre consists of nine screens, so I just took it to be the same with that theatre of the Terra Cotta Soldiers. I would hazard a guess that having 9 screens and nine projectors and 9 cameras in their circle-vision theatres work quite well with the Chinese people, with 9 being their supreme number. Each screen on my estimate, was about 4m high by 5m wide in size, but, I could be wrong. What I am sure of though, was that one screen showed no picture at all throughout the movie screening. Perhaps one of the 9 cameras or projectors malfunctioned that fortunate day I went to the Terra Cotta site. There was indeed no mistake in my using 320?movie viewing on the title. While the lack did not make a dent on the movie's surrounding effect on me, the title was intentional, only meant to point out that technically, it was not a full circle-vision movie I saw that morning of 29 March 2005.