According to the "Cautionary Circular" at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it is said that during the Southern Song Dynasty, a snake demon in shaoxing who had been cultivating for a thousand years transformed into a beautiful woman named Bai Suzhen... This is the earliest molding story of the White Lady, taken from the twenty-eighth volume of Feng Menglong's "Cautionary Tales", "White Lady Yongzhen Leifeng Pagoda". The story of the white snake incarnating as a human being and seducing men can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, but in the "Cautionary Tale", the white snake is a truly human goblin.
Because Zhao Yazhi's version of "The Legend of the New White Lady" is impressive, many people do not know the original version of Mr. Feng Menglong, and in "Cautionary Tales", Xu Xian should be Xu Xuan (Xu Xuan, Xu Xian on the TV series may be an accent error). The biggest difference between the original story and the well-known legend of the White Lady is that the TV series sets up a plot to repay favors, the White Lady goes to Xu Xian's side to repay the favor, and Fahai becomes an evil monk who breaks up his husband and wife; on the contrary, the original content is the opposite, the White Lady is completely a scourge to Xu Xuan, and Fahai is a good person who saves people from water and fire.
In today's diversified information dissemination methods, the content of traditional Chinese myths and legends such as "The Legend of the White Snake" and "Journey to the West" is in literary textbooks. I have seen it in comic books, and even derived it from television, drama, rap art and other forms.
Theatrical works
Peking opera Bai Suzhen dressed as "The Legend of the White Snake" is a famous Chinese opera drama, all kinds of drama in the country have a performance on the "Legend of the White Snake", from 1926 when the first "Legend of the White Snake" movie came out, there have been 20 movies about the "White Lady" broadcast, which also makes the image of "White Suzhen" more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, many people have begun to contact the mythical story of "The Legend of the White Snake" since childhood, Zhao Yazhi version has been broadcast for more than ten years, suitable for all ages, elegant and popular, and still has a influence that cannot be ignored. This is not something that can be summed up by a simple love story.
If we talk about the theme of "The Legend of the White Snake", it can be interpreted from many aspects, and the most critical is "anti-feudal".
It can be seen that the derivation of mythological stories has influenced later works, and "The Legend of the White Snake" is a perfect example.
The fine domestic animation film "White Snake Origin" produced by Chasing Light Animation and Warner Bros. has been greatly appreciated since its release, the film is based on the oriental classic IP, the plot is set in the "past life", but also let the audience focus on the "origin" of the characters, which is the brain hole that no previous work has had, after all, the Chinese audience who has watched "The Legend of the White Snake" for so many years is more interested in the past life story of "White Lady and Xu Xuan".
Spanning 500 years, the use of tragic colors in the film is also brought to the extreme, and it also carries the tragic narrative technique often used in mythological genre films in the legendary narrative of Chinese animation films, and the human world, the demon world, reincarnation, reincarnation, and different mythological time and space are spliced together to build a new mythological narrative style of Chinese animation films.
The data shows that "White Snake Origin" was released for 38 days, the cumulative box office of the film was 449 million, compared with the "Bear Haunting" released at the same time, it is not difficult to find the transfer of domestic animation films to the audience group, the market positioning of "White Snake Origin" is young people and adults, but from the box office, "Bear Haunting" was released for 29 days, with a cumulative box office of 708 million (the final box office of 714 million). This is also enough to show that children's animation films still occupy a large market share in domestic animation films.
The magic is that "White Snake Origin" was not good at the box office at the beginning of the release, but a week after the release, the box office suddenly rose, which also shows that for the current domestic animation films, its production, sales, publicity and a series of market operations must be done well, at the same time, as a cultural type animation film, it is also necessary to do a good job of "content and picture", so that when inheriting Chinese culture, there is also a lot of confidence.
The treatment of "White Snake Origins" in terms of picture and sound fully reflects the understanding of traditional culture and the control of the language technology of animation films, in terms of vision, the film makes full use of traditional aesthetics such as Chinese ink painting, paper cutting, color, etc. The director uses "three-dimensional images with three-dimensional characteristics to pursue the poetic feelings between Chinese landscapes and rivers in the plane effect."
The reason why this movie is full of staying power is also because of the efforts made in the production, so that the audience who go to the cinema can "Amway" to the people around them, after all, good works want to share with everyone, which is also the most important point about the reputation of the movie.
From the first full-length animation "Iron Fan Princess" in 1941 to "Baolian Lantern" in 1999, almost every one of them can be touted, and it can also be seen from the theme that Chinese love myths and legends.
In fact, during the Republic of China period, Zhang Ailing had already said: "Chinese are too accustomed to legends." ”
And the tradition is worth it is 'Peking opera, myth, legend and legend', so the Chinese films of the 20s have drawn a lot of nutrients from these old traditional resources, and Chinese legends have one thing in common, that is, sadness.
Whether it is 1979's "Nezha Noisy Sea", or 1980's "Strange Talk of Heavenly Books", "Golden Monkey Descending Demon" (1985), "Butterfly Dream, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" (2003), "The Return of the Great Sage" (2015), "Big Fish and Begonias", "2016", "The Origin of the White Snake" (2018), these animated films continue the tragic narrative in traditional Chinese mythology.
This is a feature that American family movies do not have, throughout the Disney animation tradition is almost no tragedy, even the adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" "The Lion King" is a happy ending, even if the tragic experience of the characters is added to the film, the ending will be a beautiful story.
From the whole animation of "The Origin of the White Snake", we can see the infiltration of Confucian and Taoist culture, "even if the number of people's lives is fixed, they must live freely", Xu Xuan's free and open-minded life values have been reflected in the film, followed by the image of the heroine Xiao Bai, which is also the oriental female image they strive to create, Xiao Bai is elegant and elegant, based on the needs of people, she is dressed in white throughout the whole process, soft and fairy and does not lose her heroism, when gentle, looking back can make people intoxicated, In Xiao Bai, you can see the unique charm of oriental women.
"A moment of joy, I remembered five hundred years, is it worth it?"
Xiao Bai, whether in the past life or this life, follows the emotion of "meeting a person with a white head, giving a person a true heart", in short, the invited factor for the success of "White Snake Origin" is also the shaping of female characters, the film not only constructs the female image from a new perspective, but also portrays a vivid character image, so that many people have seen a different "White Snake Legend".
Old bottle of new wine, unexpectedly good-looking, this is a lot of people's comments on this movie, the animation film itself is an audiovisual language, its charm is the story in the movie, but also the culture behind the animation film, now our domestic animation is getting better and better, but also the system for the excavation of traditional culture, as long as we make good use of these innate conditions, in our own way to tell our own story, is the greatest help to the rebirth of the national comic.
The 2020 Academy Awards officially announced the preliminary list of "Best Animated Features": "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending", "White Snake: Origins" was selected, these two domestic animations are in the list, but also shows the progress of domestic animation films, I hope that both films will get the best results, come on, national comics.
Original text, figure network