(Because Liddell was born in China and died here, some refer to him as the country’s first Olympian.) Shin said he first learned about Liddell’s life in China while working on a project related to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
I just want to make movies with good stories.” “These days, I’m not so much into making movies for money or fame anymore,” added the director, now 66. Shin, who is also a Christian, said in a recent interview. “It means a lot to me to be able to tell this story of an Olympic champion who came to China and sacrificed so much to help others,’’ Mr. With its themes of religion and wartime aggression, however, this unofficial sequel wound up requiring some careful negotiations with the Chinese censors. (It does not yet have a North American release date.) Co-directed by the veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Shin and the Canadian Michael Parker, it focuses on the final years of Liddell’s life, when he was held in a Japanese labor camp in the coastal province of Shandong. Now, that story too has been dramatized in a new film, “The Last Race,” a Hong Kong-Chinese production that opened in more than 50 Chinese cities last Friday. Propelled by a throbbing electronic score, the film, “Chariots of Fire,” stirred audiences with the triumphs of the athletes - the Jewish Englishman Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) and the Christian Scotsman Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) - but struck a sobering note at the end with the information that Liddell later became a missionary in China, like his parents, and died in 1945 during the Japanese occupation.
BEIJING - Thirty-five years ago, a low-budget film from Britain about two runners who represented the country in the 1924 Olympics became a worldwide hit and went on to win four Academy Awards, including best picture.
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