Historical documentary is another form of representation of previous history. It was not filmed using today's film and television actors. It is the most authentic historical facts shown by historical data, cultural relics and other related objects. There is a historical documentary that I think is pretty good called "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City". Because I am somewhat interested in antique calligraphy and painting, I feel this documentary is worth watching.
This documentary has three episodes in a ***, and the name of each episode contains the main content of this episode.
The first episode is "Restoration of Bronze, Palace Clocks, and Ceramics", which mentions that the staff are all the country's top cultural relic restoration experts. The masters of their masters were workers among the ancient Chinese scholars, farmers, and merchants. Many antiques can be seen in the documentary. Antiques have been in the corners of the Forbidden City for a long time, and some have been eaten away by insects. There are also factors such as black mold that endanger these precious assets. It mentioned that there is a clock that belonged to Emperor Qianlong: a gold-plated copper country music water method clock. The sound of this clock is very clear and sounds good. It was restored by Teacher Wang Jin, but it was very difficult to repair. The documentary shows us the process of these restorations.
The second episode is "Repair of Woodware, Lacquerware, Flower Inlay, and Weaving and Embroidery". At the beginning, the wooden group introduced us to a wooden Buddha statue from the Liao and Jin Dynasties. It can be seen that after thousands of years of time, the gold paint on the wooden Buddha statue has peeled off. The texture of the wooden tire is exposed. But it is well preserved and the craftsmanship is excellent. So it has good restoration value. In the work of their restorers, repairing something like a finger is very cumbersome. The coloring needs to be done several times. Still need to be disposed of. It is necessary to restore the wooden Buddha statues thousands of years ago and maintain the style of thousands of years ago. It is a great test of aesthetics. Meeting the right restorer is also a matter of fate.
The documentary records more than just the working scenes of workers. It also mixes into their lives. It mentioned the process of beating apricots. I feel that in today's Beijing city, being able to see that touch of greenery is particularly refreshing psychologically.
The third episode is "Restoration, Copying and Rubbing of Calligraphy and Paintings". This episode is the most colorful in the entire documentary. The members of the calligraphy and painting restoration team feel that they are full of knowledge. Their first generation of founders restored top-notch paintings such as "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and "Five Cows". However, I feel that the restoration of ancient paintings and calligraphy requires more patience. Calligraphy and painting are not like other antiques. They are more susceptible to damage. Improper handling will cause calligraphy and painting to break and be damaged. What I didn't expect was that water, the most common thing in life, plays a very important role in the restoration of ancient paintings and calligraphy.
The perfect cultural relics that each of us can see in the Palace Museum are the work that the Palace Museum restorers spent dozens of days and nights to complete. I'm just talking a little bit about the documentary. The documentary only recorded a little of the cultural relics that need to be restored in the Forbidden City. So this documentary is really worth watching. Let’s learn about the stories behind the artifacts.