The 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony

If you didn't catch the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics than you missed a pretty impressive demonstration of what $300 million and an eagerness to impress can accomplish.

Whereas opening ceremonies of the past have generally felt histrionic and pompous, this one came off like a true wuxia epic. Fireworks, the world's largest LED screen and a cast of 22,000 performers precisely synchronized with choreography that would make a Filipino prisoner green with envy managed to impress even the most jaded of viewers (e.g., me). I especially liked the opening of the show with the 2008 Fou drummers banging away on their LED-embedded drums. The Tai Chi performance was also a highlight and a true marvel of choreography on a mass scale.

I really got to hand it to the directors of the ceremonies, famed Chinese film makers Zhang Yimou and Zhang Jigang. They may have pulled off the biggest spectacle in human history on 08/08/08 at 8pm.

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