Ryo Takeuchi's latest Shenzhen-themed documentary "I Am Book City."
WHEN filming Shenzhen, most directors tend to focus on “Shenzhen speed” to present this pioneering city of reform and opening up. In sharp contrast, Japanese documentary director Ryo Takeuchi turned the camera on Shenzhen Book City CBD store, one of the quietest and slowest-paced places in the bustling metropolis.
大多数导演在拍摄深圳时会用“深圳速度”来展现这座中国改革开放的桥头堡。然而，日本纪录片导演竹内亮却将镜头对准了这座繁华都市中最安静、节奏最慢的地方之一：深圳中心书城。
A poster of "I Am Book City," the latest Shenzhen-themed work by Japanese documentary director Ryo Takeuchi.
Takeuchi is a Nanjing-based expat documentarist, who has been widely recognized in China via a large number of his works focusing on Chinese ordinary people, including “The Reason I Live Here” (“I Live”) series, a trilogy under China’s anti-pandemic combat topic, and “Beyond the Mountain,” an exploration of China’s poverty alleviation effort.
竹内亮是一位常驻南京的外籍纪录片导演。因为拍摄了多部关于中国百姓的片子而被大众所熟知，其中包括《我住在这里的理由》，中国抗疫三部曲和呈现中国扶贫成果的《走近大凉山》。
“I Am Book City,” which was published on the internet at the end of 2021, is Takeuchi’s latest Shenzhen-themed documentary work, as well as the first episode of a new series, called “I Am Somebody,” which in each installment spotlights a part of a Chinese city to record its residents’ daily lives.
竹内导演新作《我是书城》发布于2021年年底。这是他最新一部以深圳为主题的作品，也是 “我是某某”系列的第一部。“我是某某”是拍摄中国城市的系列纪录片，通过选取一座城市中最有意思的一个地方，将之拟人化，来真实地记录当地老百姓的日常生活。
Ryo Takeuchi (L) interviews a customer for his new project “I Am Book City” at Shenzhen Book City CBD store. Photos by He Zhi Meng Documentary Studio
In the film, the Shenzhen Book City CBD store, currently the world’s largest book mall, is personified to observe its customers. The reason Takeuchi chose this building originates from his first encounter with the place, where he launched one of his books last year.
在《我是书城》中，世界最大书城——深圳中心书城成了一位观察者。竹内导演之所以选择深圳书城是因为去年他在这里发布了他的新书。
He has since been deeply impressed by the mall’s size and Shenzhen residents’ enthusiasm for reading. “I have never seen a bookshop larger than this, even in Japan,” Takeuchi told Shenzhen Daily. “Nowadays, people tend to prefer reading eBooks to paper books, but Shenzhen’s readers still like to visit brick-and-mortar stores, which I had not expected,” he said.
第一次见到深圳中心书城，他被这座建筑的规模和深圳读者的热情深深震撼：“我从未见过这么大的书店，即便是在日本。如今很多人喜欢电子书胜过纸质书，但深圳市民仍然选择去实体书店。这完全出乎我意料之外。”
Ryo Takeuchi (R) films at Shenzhen Book City CBD store.
In November last year, a five-person film crew led by Takeuchi interviewed over 50 readers at the Book City during 72 consecutive hours of shooting, and ultimately, the most touching and interesting stories were selected.
去年11月，一支由竹内亮为首的5人摄制组连续72小时采访了50多位书城的读者，他们最终从中选出了最感人、最有意思的故事。
The 20-minute documentary, which consists of 10 brief interviews of readers with diverse backgrounds, such as kindergarten teachers, an 86-year-old reader, and a mother with her autistic daughter, vividly presents Shenzheners’ pursuit for rich intellectual and cultural lives and for peace of mind.
这部20分钟的纪录片由10位不同背景的读者故事组成，包括幼儿园老师、86岁的老读者、患有自闭症的孩子和她的母亲等。这部片子生动地展现了深圳人对丰富的精神文化生活和内心的那份平静的追求。
Ryo Takeuchi (L) interviews a boy reading a book while a crew member films their conversation at Shenzhen Book City CBD store.
“My favorite part is a story of a mother and her blind daughter,” said Takeuchi. The blind young woman, who lost her eyesight because of illness in her junior year in her university, regained passion and hope for life from reading.
竹内导演告诉记者：“我最喜欢的故事是一位母亲和她失明的女儿。这位年轻女性在大学三年级时因病失明，但她从阅读中重获了对生活的热情和希望。”
“The daughter told me it is the citywide handicapped accessible facilities and millions of volunteers that attracted her to settle down in Shenzhen. Yet for my previous interviewees of Shenzhen, making money is a more common reason to live in China’s Silicon Valley,” he said.
竹内亮说道：“这位女性告诉我她被深圳市完善的残疾人无障碍设施和‘志愿者之城’的称号所吸引，最终决定定居在这里。之前我拍深圳时，很多采访对象很我说他们来深圳是为了‘搞钱’。”
Ryo Takeuchi films in the 24 Hours Book Bar at Shenzhen Book City CBD store.
Over the past year, he spent almost half of the time shooting films for the “100 Faces of Huawei” project and for the Shenzhen-themed “I Live.”
在过去的一年，他花了近一半的时间在深圳拍摄《华为的100张面孔》和《我住在这里的理由》深圳篇。
“I had a stereotype that the reason people coming to Shenzhen from all over the world was to start a business and seek better career opportunities. I didn’t know the city is equally appealing in the cultural sector,” he said.
他说道：“我之前有一种成见，误以为大家从世界各地来到深圳市只是为了创业和寻找更好的工作机会。我不知道这个城市在文化领域也有如此有吸引力。”
Filming of "I Am Book City" by Ryo Takeuchi and his crew at Shenzhen Book City CBD store.
Although being overshadowed by its achievements in high technology and manufacturing industries, Shenzhen has been booming in cultural development for years: The city has topped the nation in per capita annual expenditure on books for 29 years, and it has organized and provided a citywide reading campaign for 21 years.
深圳向来以发达的高科技产业和制造业为世人所熟知，但这座城市多年来一直在文化领域上发力，该领域的发展也已欣欣向荣，例如深圳市人均图书消费连续29年位居全国第一；深圳市的全民阅读运动从发起已经开展了21年。
“To make this documentary, I want to dispel prejudices concerning Shenzhen as a cultural desert, and as a place where only skyscrapers and high-tech enterprises exist. The place in fact boasts a lot of cultural treasures,” Takeuchi told Shenzhen Daily.
竹内亮告诉记者：“通过拍摄这部纪录片，我想要打破人们对深圳的偏见，误以为深圳是个只有摩天大楼和高科技产品的文化沙漠。事实上，这座城市蕴藏了很多文化宝藏。”
Ryo Takeuchi interacts with the audienue at an event of “I Live” at Shenzhen Book City CBD on Dec. 11, 2021.
In the future, the Japanese documentarist plans to make more films with a variety of topics related to Shenzhen. “I’d like to offer a sincere invitation to Shenzhen Daily readers to recommend interesting people and places,” he added.
未来，这位日本导演计划拍摄更多和深圳相关的作品：“我诚挚得邀请《深圳日报》的读者们给我推荐有意思的人物和地方！”他热情欢迎大家到他的微博上留言告诉他拍摄线索。
People who have any clues can leave messages to the director by searching for 竹内亮 (the Chinese for Ryo Takeuchi) in Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.
内容来源：深圳日报 ShenzhenDaily
记者：夏媛洁
编辑：钟汝芳
校审：肖刚 黄淳 周锦春
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