Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang (2016)

Bam! I, a fireworks fanatic, was moved to tears of joy watching this documentary about the Chinese artist whose mediums include pyrotechnics, pen, and paint. Jack liked the movie, too. The art is spectacular, the photography splendid, and the music superb. The internet says his name is pronounced Tsai gwoh djung (rhymes with my low young).

Director Kevin Macdonald, his two dozen producers, two directors of photography (Robert Yeoman and Florian Zinke), and two editors (Adam Biskupski and Nick Emerson) bring us a magnificent show whose only award, surprisingly, was a nomination for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

The sky ladder project serves as bookends here for Cai's work, which also includes the fireworks displays at the Chinese Olympics on 08/08/08 and the 2014 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit) meeting, as well as the Ninth Wave exhibit, also in 2014, which included stuffed animal replicas (you have to see it), gunpowder on paper, and so much more. As much as I love fireworks, the Ninth Wave alone made the movie worth watching. Here is the artist's website.

We also get a glimpse into Chinese politics and Cai's love for his aged grandmother and father.

The music by Alex Heffes doesn't seem to be available online, though he is experienced and lauded.

Macdonald was last blogged for State of Play, Yeoman for The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Heffes for Queen of Katwe. Zinke's credits seem to be all Chinese movies, documentaries, and shorts, none of which I have seen.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are reaching for the heavens with us, averaging a perfect 100%, while its critics are slightly more earthbound at 84.

Made for Netflix, this is a scant 76 minutes long, and we watched it Friday June 4. I can't remember how it made its way onto my watch list but I'm very glad it did. We recommend it highly.