Real-life panda makes big screen debut

Stand aside, Winnie the Pooh, it's panda time. Touch of the Panda, the latest cinematic entry featuring real-life pandas, opened at mainland cinemas last weekend. For the first time in history, sixteen pandas play the lead in the film. On today's Spotlight, we focus on the furry animals and their screen adventures.

Set against the spectacular scenery of Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve in southwestern China's Sichuan province, the film's central character is an orphan named Lu, who finds a lost panda cub, Pang Pang. Lu carries his new friend on his back and starts a thrilling trip to return the cub to its mother.

Tragically, the film lost one of its heroines at the end of the shooting. Panda Mao Mao, who plays Pang Pang's mother, was killed in last year's Wenchuan Earthquake. Wolong, where the shooting for the film took place, was nearly destroyed by the quake and is still being rebuilt. The movie is also the only complete film recording of the reserve before the earthquake.

To commemorate the event, the film premiered at the one year anniversary of the earthquake.

Yu Zhong, the director of Touch of the Panda said, "I was sad when I edited the film because many of the beautiful places had been destroyed. Even the bridge Lu walked across in the film, and the shelter have gone. "