A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Release Date:
August 5, 2008
Original Title:
皇帝的秘密花园
Genres:
Documentary
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Beijing's Forbidden City is known throughout the world as an icon of Chinese history, evolving over the centuries as a symbol of the glory and grandeur of its ruling elite. Yet in one corner stands a more intimate group of buildings and gardens—one that has lain unused and virtually untouched for more than two hundred years. This film takes us on a fascinating journey into a world where only the most perfect and beautiful work could be offered to an Emperor—a standard that the modern world is hard-pressed to equal. The revelation is that supreme skills and traditional materials may be rare, but they do still exist, if the will exists to seek them out. The search ends in triumph—and watching this remarkable and intricate treasure come back to life is an unforgettable experience.
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.