About two months after China took center stage with the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, the man behind the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Games still has not taken any time off.
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Director Zhang Yimou at the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympics in Beijing. He says the Olympics have had a great impact on him.
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For acclaimed movie director Zhang Yimou, there are movies to make, more audiences to astound and awards to win.
Since the Olympics, he has been swamped with scripts and movie offers - he is still weighing up his options and has yet to reveal what his next project will be.
"Some people say I'm a genius? No, I don't think I can be called that I'm just an ordinary film director, but I can confidently say I'm China's most hard-working director."
It will be a tall order to trump his Olympic achievements. About one third of the world's population, or 2 billion people, reportedly watched the Aug 8 Opening Ceremony alone. All four ceremonies of the Games involved more than 40,000 people and took three years of Zhang's time.
At a press conference at the Beijing Film Academy, where he accepted an invitation to receive an honorary doctorate from Boston University in May, Zhang said directing the Games ceremonies was an "unforgettable", "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity.
Zhang's Olympic experience certainly had an effect on the way he looks at things.
"The Olympics had a huge impact on me. I realized how much easier it was to make a movie, in terms of scale and effort," Zhang said.
"More importantly, it was a learning opportunity. Having to put together 5,000 years of Chinese civilization and present it in a literary and artistic fashion if we had not done our own research in the face of meaningful dialogue with foreign expertise, we would not have been able to make the right choices and put up a good show.
"This process greatly deepened my understanding of Chinese culture and I hope that has enriched me."
Zhang's piercing eyes took on an extra glint and his baritone voice became particularly impassioned, when he spoke of how the enthusiasm of those involved in the ceremonies had also left a lasting impression.
"To have 1,000 people on a movie set like we had in Hero, donning period costumes and riding horses, was an amazing sight.
"But for the Olympics, we'd commonly see 10,000 people on site. Entering the Bird's Nest, where the performers would often be rehearsing in the middle of the night everyone would be in high spirits, singing and cheering, from children to adults. Such zeal was simply exhilarating.
"Compare that with movie-making, where one often hears those on set saying: 'Are we done yet? We're getting hungry!' That's the movie business.
