It’s not quite up there with Leonardo DiCaprio eating raw bison liver to get into character, but Michelle Yeoh reportedly spent two years learning the Rubik’s Cube to prepare for this Chinese drama in which she plays a real-life former maths teacher who became a champion in retirement. The true story is stretched and squeezed here, fictionalised to fit sports-movie formula; it ends up being so-so entertaining and funny in places, but disappointingly predictable. The biggest surprise is that cubing is so popular it has its own world championship. Still,…
Tag: Puzzle games
Specialist coaches and hours of practice a day: the making of China’s six-year-old Rubik’s Cube prodigy
The mother of the six-year-old girl who broke the women’s world record for solving a Rubik’s Cube in an average time of just over four seconds said the accolade was a “dream come true” for her daughter, who trains for up to three hours a day for competitions. “She was overjoyed and felt that all her hard work had paid off,” Lin Yangxi told the Guardian of her daughter’s feat. Lian Yunzhi, known as Zhizhi, broke the women’s 3×3 average world record at a “speedcubing” event in Guangzhou hosted by…
Six-year-old Chinese girl ‘sets new women’s Rubik’s Cube world record’
A six-year-old Chinese girl has set a new women’s world record for solving a Rubik’s Cube in just over four seconds, state media reported. “Speedcuber” Lian Yunzhi broke the women’s 3×3 average world record twice this month at two World Cube Association certified competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou, according to state broadcaster CCTV on Monday. She posted averages of 4.52 and 4.27 seconds, after solving the Rubik’s Cube five times. The girl, who is from Chengdu, is “the first female speedcuber to average under 4.5 seconds”, CCTV said. A video…