Jump Boys
(Fan gun ba! Nan hai) Director: Lin Yu-hsien, Taiwan, 2004, Chinese, Mandarin / English subtitles, 84 min
Even Czech TV audience is occasionally treated to a coverage of world gymnastics competitions. The athletes are younger, more dexterous than used to be customary and it may seem that due to constant training they have no time for a normal life. This playful documentary follows the fates of several 8-to-9-year-old boys who spend most of their free time training gymnastics, but still are able to help their parents, entertain their schoolmates and most of all, dream about their success to come. At the first sight a slightly bizarre video, but this movie offers a view of the beginning of careers of future top-notch athletes and also shows to what extent is gymnastics popular in Taiwan.
Lin Yu-Hsien (1974)
Graduated from the Taipei university in the field of management. Gradually, he started taking courses in film production eventually to develop a relationship to documentary film. He worked for an advertising agency and later as an assistant director in feature-film productions. Jump Boys became on of the most popular films of the year and won its author a whole range of awards.
