Bei Bei the Lighting = Pili Bei Bei

This is a science-fiction movie for kids. It tells the story of a little boy, Bei Bei who has supernatural power as a UFO visited the hospital that he was born. Bei Bei’s parents soon discovered that their newborn baby could discharge electricity. Poor Bei Bei was mostly confined at home with gloves in his hands all the time before he was six. As Bei Bei goes to school, his teachers and fellow classmates find Bei Bei strange as he never takes his gloves off. Bei Bei sometimes accidentally hurts his friends and is unpopular in his class. One rainy night, Bei Bei helped a blind old man, who was magically able to see again after touching Bei Bei’s hands. The Human Body Research Centre took Bei Bei for research, but the electrified boy feels unhappy at the Centre and misses his friends and family. Bei Bei’s friends managed to get Bei Bei out from the Centre and the kids went to the Great Wall to call the ET. At night, the kids fell asleep and Bei Bei unconsciously shook hands with an ET in sleepwalking. As Bei Bei wakes up in hospital, he finds he has no electricity in his body anymore. Bei Bei happily hugs his parents and friends.

The film is one of the first and most famous children’s science fiction in Chinese cinema. It was hugely popular among schools students at the time of its release. The film dealt with the loneliness of Chinese children after the “one-child” policy was introduced to control China’s population in the early 1980s. Beijing Children’s Film Studio was established in 1981 to make films especially for children. (3.5 stars - Yuxing Zhou; December 16, 2010)