(Observer Network News) Today (5th), the 4K restored version of the domestic classic animation "Tianshu Qitan" landed on the national big screen. After 38 years, for the re-screening of this "renovated" old film, it is inevitable that there will be doubts about "fried cold rice" and "consumption classics" in the outside world. In this regard, the director of the shanghai fine arts film studio, the animation producer, Saida, responded to the media that the pursuit of economic interests and box office is definitely not the purpose of the restoration version.
Previously, Suda also made it clear in an interview with the Observer Network in early October: "The significance of repairing "Tianshu Qitan" is not only to show it again, but also to review and guide our entire animation creation." Creators today, they may not see particularly many quality films, or even understand the mindset of creators in the past. Then our restoration and re-screening are actually to provide creators with learning materials behind some excellent works. ”
The picture is from the official Weibo of "Tianshu Qitan"
In 1983, the third color animated feature film of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio (hereinafter referred to as Shangmei Film) was born, which is "Tianshu Qitan". As an animation with the reputation of "the master of China's excellent traditional culture", "Tianshu Qitan" was quite popular with the audience after its release, and many of its storylines have become the childhood collective memories of many "post-70s" and "post-80s".
Therefore, the return of "Tianshu Qitan" is a rare "late surprise" for many "post-70s" and "post-80s", just like the theme of its premiere in Shanghai, "38 years late".
"Tianshu Qitan" was released, and many netizens sighed "Ye QingHui"
The enduring nature of "Heavenly Book" is inseparable from its story core and far-reaching artistic achievements that are suitable for all ages, elegant and popular.
Based on the classical Chinese mythological novel The Legend of Ping You, Tianshu Qitan retains and adapts some of the characters in the novel and incorporates many traditional folk tales. The plot of the animation is roughly as follows: Yuan Gong, the deacon of the Heavenly Palace, privately took the Heavenly Book for the benefit of mankind and carved the Text of heaven on the stone wall, but because of this, he violated the Heavenly Rules and was punished to guard the Heavenly Book. Later, Yuan Highway encountered an egg and instructed him to practice the spells in the Heavenly Book. At this time, the three fox spirits were colluding with the government to harm the people. In order to eliminate harm for the people, after many fighting methods, Egg Sheng and Yuan Gong together eliminated the fox demon. However, Yuan Gong eventually escaped the Heavenly Court and was arrested and returned to the Heavenly Court for questioning.
Although this story is not complicated, it can also be divided into two lines, light and dark, which is worth savoring. In addition to the story, the film's artistic attainment is also quite high.
According to the China News Network, the film draws on the traditional Chinese culture of painting, sculpture, toys, opera and other artistic elements, bringing together many folk imagery, such as the use of a large number of traditional folk music as background music, the little emperor marveled at the "birds and phoenix", stilts, dragon and lion dance and other folk activities, can be described as a "folk garden"; the gardens, palaces, courtyards, landscapes in the film, is to follow the "Wumen School" style, with heavy color painting of cultural landscapes, with light ink to paint natural landscapes.
Among them, it is worth mentioning the unique character shape in the animation. According to media reports, director Qian Yunda specially invited Ke Ming, who was the american editor of Nanjing's "Xinhua Daily" at the time, as an animation styling designer, and many of the character images in the film came from opera style, and the life and death were all ugly. For example, the fox girl's slanted eyes and two pieces of blush are absorbed from the plastic art characteristics of the Peking Opera Danjiao face; the county order is borrowed from the image of the clown, plus the very exaggerated use of sharpened rat faces and rat whiskers to strengthen his sense of triviality. Particularly interesting is the shape of the little emperor, like a small toy made of cardboard, very dirty and cheap, with a thin wooden stick around the neck and a huge head that can be turned freely. These provide the greatest room for action design, which can be designed according to the styling characteristics, personality and prescribed plot of each character.
The image of the fox girl, the little emperor, the county order and other characters, pictured from the official Weibo of "Tianshu Qitan"
All these have created the unique temperament of the animation "Heavenly Book". In an interview with the Beijing News, the director of Shangmei Film Said that "Tianshu Qitan" is "the most distinctive" animation. "Before it, the animation emphasized more artistic expression and educational functions, "Heavenly Book" gave the creators the opportunity to create entertaining, interesting animation, you can free your hands and feet to create plays and art designs, animators more and more feel interesting is the soul of animation, of course, there was a particularly good creative environment at that time, not as complicated as animation under the conditions of today's market economy, creation will not be affected by commercial components, this is where they are very happy."
A report in the Oriental Morning Post also commented, "The pursuit of the aesthetic value of strange, interesting and beautiful in Tianshu Qitan completely deviates from the track of shaping the character image of 'Tall And Complete' that was still popular in that era, and a sense of humor is emitted everywhere." ”
The egg eats the cake first, eats the middle, and then puts it around the neck and eats it in a circle, screenshot of the video
However, "Tianshu Qitan" has not actually been screened on a large scale in theaters nationwide before. In order to give the audience the opportunity to watch this film on the big screen, and also adhering to the original intention of protecting and inheriting the national culture, Shanghai Meiying launched 4K ultra-high-definition picture restoration and sound restoration work in 2018 to "renovate" the classic old film of the film era.
The digital restoration of The Book of Heaven is not an easy task. According to the China News Network, the original film needs to be sorted out first, cleaned by ultrasonic washing, and then scanned to the hard disk; then enter the color correction, frame-by-frame repair, sound scanning and restoration stage; and finally sound and picture synthesis, by the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, Shanghai Film Technology Factory to complete the basic restoration work.
The follow-up 4K repair work was carried out by Migu, a subsidiary of China Mobile. The restoration team follows the principle of "repairing the old as old", de-denoising, de-scratching, color enhancement, super-scoring, etc., continuously testing and repeatedly tuning in the process, while improving the clarity of the film, and retaining the brushstrokes and graininess of the original animation of the film to the greatest extent.
Sound restoration has also undergone a delicate and tedious process. The restorer uses modern separation techniques to separate dialogue, music, and sound effects from mono mastering. In this process, the restorer needs to follow the trajectory of the original material and follow the original special timbre of the film, so as not to interfere with the audience's emotional and chronological memory of the sound picture; the restorer uses the "80s" simulation harmonizer of the last century to make the soundtrack tone consistent with the original. The sound material that has been successfully separated into surround sound is unfolded through the effects, so that the soundstage finally reaches the 5.1-channel effect of modern cinema viewing.
After such a complex and professional overall restoration and digitization, "Tianshu Qitan 4K Commemorative Edition" can finally meet the audience. On the newborn movie poster of "Tianshu Qitan", 6 of the 12 main creators have passed away, and director Qian Yunda is now over ninety years old.
However, the re-screening of old films can not escape the questions of "fried cold rice" and "consumption classics" from the outside world. In this regard, Suda said in an interview with the Beijing News: The pursuit of economic interests and box office is definitely not the purpose of the restoration version.
"I understand that everyone has such a voice. Because in the past, we really didn't make a lot of new films, and we understand the mood of people who want to see new works. In the future, we will also have more than ten movies launched one after another, whether it is a movie or a network, but it should be understood that animated movies are not wanted to have, four or five years of production time is at least, it has its creative rules. ”
At the same time, she also said bluntly: "We know everyone's expectations very well, and we can accept the idea of fried cold rice, at least it shows that we have cold rice to fry!" Cold rice stir-fried will also be a very delicious egg fried rice. Besides, this rice is worth frying. Classic restoration is also a new creation, which can bring new experiences to the screen and the audience, we are not completely copying the past and selling tickets again, but again deep creation. ”
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.