On October 14, the 4K commemorative edition of the animated movie "Tianshu Qitan" released a final poster, announcing that it would land on the national big screen on November 5. And this animation film, which has been regarded as a classic by generations, has to mention the production team behind it - Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio.
This animation film studio, once the king of Asian animation, is comparable to Western Disney and is a microcosm of the history of Chinese animation.
China's animation industry began in the 1920s and reached its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, when animation production was at the world's leading level, and its strength was enough to compete with the United States and Japan.
However, with the change of the times, Chinese animation films have gradually abandoned their own traditional characteristics, coupled with the loss of animation talents, Chinese animation has also declined. As the first animation film manufacturer in China at that time, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio created the golden age of Chinese animation and also represented the peak of Chinese animation.
The prosperity and decline of Shangmei Factory not only represents the glory and decline of Chinese animation, but also hints at the rise and fall of traditional Chinese culture. Next, let's take a look at how this wind moon, which has lasted for half a century, began to be established, and how it went from glory to decline.
01 Traditional culture is the essence of Chinese animation stories
In recent years, with the rise of the national tide, domestic animation is also returning to its own tradition, opening up a mode of animation of its own, such as "The Return of the Great Sage", "Nezha" and other excellent works, it seems that the Chinese people see the rise of Chinese animation, and all of this is based on the core of our traditional culture.
As the painter Zhang Guangyu mentioned in the article "The Problem of the Creation of Decorative Arts", "How many people still have the problem of not paying enough attention to, or even doubting, the unique superiority of national traditions?" In this way, if we try to establish the prosperity of new art in a way that is divorced from tradition, it will become a rootless wood and a water without a source. ”
In 2008, "Kung Fu Panda" produced by DreamWorks brought the Chinese story elements to the fullest, and foreigners told a traditional Chinese cultural story and conquered the world, which also had to make the Chinese people feel the charm of Chinese cultural elements at the same time, reflecting on the future of domestic animation.
Subsequently, 2015's "The Return of the Great Sage" achieved great success, and the film is still selected from the well-known story of the Chinese country, "Journey to the West", although it tells a Chinese story, but it can still glimpse the shadow of Hollywood animation.
Many people compare "The Return of the Great Sage" with the "Treasure of the Town Factory" "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" directed by Wan Liming and Tang Cheng half a century ago, because the film "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" represents the peak of Chinese animation art, and no one has been able to match it so far.
02 The Wan brothers, the "founders" of Chinese animation
When it comes to Shangmei Factory, we have to mention the two brothers Wan Liming and Wangu Toad. The two were originally twin brothers, born in Nanjing, Jiangsu in 1900, and two other younger brothers, Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan, a total of four brothers.
Photo: Zhang Guangyu (center) with Wan Liming and Wangu Toad
The Wan brothers' father was a satin merchant who knew a little about art, and his mother was skillful and could embroider and cut paper. The four brothers have loved fine arts since childhood and learned to paint with the support of their parents.
In 1919, at the age of 18, Wan Liming was admitted to the fine arts department of the Shanghai Commercial Press. He has successively served in the Art Department and the Active Film and Drama Department. He mainly creates advertising paintings, and draws illustrations and covers for magazines.
Photo / Wan Liming, the founding ancestor of Chinese animation, world-class animation director, representative works such as "Iron Fan Princess", "Big Trouble in Tiangong", "Divine Pen Ma Liang" and so on.
In 1921, Wangu Toad graduated from the Western Painting Department of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, and later taught at the school, Shanghai University, and Nanjing Academy of Fine Arts. Wan Chaochen graduated from nanjing fine arts college in 1922 and from the decoration department of Shanghai Oriental Art College in 1924. Later, the three brothers entered the film and drama department of the Commercial Press together and devoted themselves to the experimentation and creation of Chinese animation films, which were called "Wan's Cartoons".
In 1925, wan Liming and wangu toad brothers co-produced the "animation advertisement" "Shu Zhendong Chinese Typewriter", which was regarded as the "prototype" of Chinese animation.
In 1926, the brothers joined the Great Wall Film Company and collaborated to create the first animation film "Big Trouble Studio", which announced the birth of Chinese art film.
Photo / "Brain Studio", China's first black-and-white animation film, the film is 10 minutes long, but it has achieved a combination of live-action and animation.
In the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Tang brothers carried out anti-Japanese propaganda activities with the belief of "using animation as a weapon" and cooperated in completing many animated short films such as "The People Of the Nation Wake Up Quickly", "The History of National Pain", "Tortoise and Rabbit Race", "Camel Dance", "Anti-Japanese War Slogan" and so on. Until 1940, the Nationalist government's passive anti-war policy was introduced, and all films with anti-war content were rejected or even stopped.
In 1937, the multimillion-dollar American cartoon "Snow White" was screened in Shanghai, and the streets were crowded.
The hit of "Snow White" touched the Wan brothers a lot, so the brothers decided to make a high-quality animated feature film.
It is worth mentioning that the Wan brothers carefully considered the bridge section of "Sun Wukong Three Borrowing Banana Fan" in "Journey to the West" and named it "Iron Fan Princess", which is quite meaningful.
At the end of the film, the slogan "The people rise up to fight for the final victory" encourages the anti-Japanese struggle, but when it is screened, it encounters scissors from the authorities!
When preparing for filming, the producer felt that the risk was too great, "Iron Fan Princess" almost died, and Wan Liming patted his chest to guarantee that he would not lose money, so that the film did not give up halfway.
In this way, after a year and a half of hard work, more than 100 people completed the 80-minute black-and-white animated feature film "The Iron Fan Princess" in 1941, which was distributed and released in the name of China United Pictures.
The film was screened in 3 cinemas in Shanghai at the same time, and the box office revenue exceeded all the feature films released at that time, and it was a masterpiece of world-class animation films at that time!
This is the fourth animated feature film in Asia, after "Snow White", "Villain Country" and "Pinocchio" in the United States, marking that China's animation art at that time was close to the world's advanced level. It is said that Japanese manga master Osamu Tezuka once said that after watching this cartoon, he abandoned medical painting and decided to engage in animation creation.
Photo: Osamu Tezuka, Japanese anime master, masterpiece "Astro Boy"
Later, when Osamu Tezuka visited China, he also paid a special visit to Mr. Wan Liming, took Mr. Wan Liming's hand and said excitedly, "I just watched your animation before I embarked on the path of animation!" ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="49" >03 The great attempt of Shangmei Factory: from puppet pieces to ink pieces</h1>
In the two years from 1950 to 1952, 8 private film enterprises, including Shanghai Changjiang Film Studio, Wenhua Film Company, Cathay Pictures Company and Kunlun Film Company, jointly formed the state-run "Shanghai United Film Studio".
In February 1953, the Shanghai Film Studio merged with the Shanghai United Film Studio, but still used the name "Shanghai Film Studio". Among them, the "Northeast Film Studio" established the "Fine Arts Film Group" as early as 1949, and moved to Shanghai the following year, under the "Shanghai Film Studio".
In April 1957, the "Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio" officially established a factory, setting up three production departments of animation, puppetry and paper cutting, becoming the earliest and largest film studio in New China. Mr. "Te Wei" became the first director of the factory, and the Wan brothers served as animation directors in Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, thus opening the "golden age" of Chinese animation films!
Photo / Te Wei, a Chinese animation artist and one of the founders of the "Chinese School" of animated films
Before the official establishment of the factory, the art film team has produced 94 animation films, and has created several "firsts"!
In order to explore the road of national style, in addition to the theme, intention, image and set, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio also uses traditional Chinese folk art forms such as paper-cutting, puppetry, ink painting, shadow puppetry, origami, etc., creating a precedent for the application of traditional art to animation films!
In 1955, Shanghai Mei film studio produced the "first domestic puppet mythological film" "Magic Pen Ma Liang", directed by Jin Xi and You Lei, and written by Hong Xuntao, and won the first prize of children's entertainment film in the "Eighth International Children's Film Festival", which was also the first time that domestic animation film won an award internationally!
In 1956, in order to "explore the road of national forms and knock on the door of comedy style", the shanghai fine arts film studio drew on the face art of Peking Opera, and produced the animation film "The Proud General", which was known as the pioneering work of the "Chinese Animation School"!
Photo/ "The Proud General" tells the story of a general who returns from victory and is proud and complacent, abandons the martial arts of war, and is finally captured alive by the enemy.
At the beginning of 1957, Wangu Toad led Chen Zhenghong, Zhan Tong, Liu Fengzhan, Xie Yougen, Che Hui, Du Chunfu, Hu Jinqing, etc. to form a paper-cut film experimental group and began to prepare for the filming of paper-cut films, thus opening up the types of new art films.
Their first test shoot was not very successful, and it was very difficult to operate, because the characters were a little shaken due to inaccurate positioning.
At the beginning of 1958, the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio began its second shooting.
Due to the lessons learned from the first trial shooting, after more than 1 year of hard work, the "China's first paper-cut film" "Pig Eight Commandments Eat Watermelon", directed by Wangu Toad and written by Bao Lei, was successfully filmed.
1958 can be said to be a very productive year for the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, and 24 animation films were successively filmed, such as "Over the Monkey Mountain" and "Little Carp Jumping the Dragon Gate".
In 1959, in order to try to produce "ink" style animation, the designer "Xu Jingda" found the photographer "Duan Xiaoxuan" to discuss, so he said that "Qi Baishi's painting can be printed on the washbasin, it looks very realistic, can it be made into an animation?" " conception.
Photo / Xu Jingda, who has served as an art designer and director of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, co-directed and directed "Nezha Noisy Sea" and "Three Monks".
So the two of them found Qian Jiajun, the chief technician of the American Film Studio at the time, to study together.
Photo / Qian Jiajun, former director and chief technician of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, one of the pioneers of Chinese animation films!
Then they began to conduct large-scale ink painting experiments, almost the whole factory mobilized, into the shooting of ink films, in July 1960 produced a 7-minute "China's first ink animation film" "Little Tadpole Finds Mother".
The film is adapted from the fairy tale of the same name created by Fang Huizhen and Sheng Lude, and is based on the ink masterpiece "Frog Sound Ten Miles Out of the Mountain Spring" by the old man of Baishi, directed by Sheng Tewei, Qian Jiajun and Tang Cheng, and written by Fang Huizhen and Sheng Lude.
The film has won awards at 5 international film festivals:
Silver Sail Award for Short Films at the 14th Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland
Special Award for Short Films at the 4th Annecy International Animation Festival in France
Honorary Award at the 4th Cannes International Film Festival
First prize at the 3rd Zagreb International Animation Film Festival in Yugoslavia
Second Prize, 4th International Youth Film Festival, Centre Pompidou, France!
In the same year, Yu Zheguang made the "first origami film" "Smart Duck" with the shape of "Children's Handmade Origami". The film was screened at the 11th Gifone International Children's Film Festival in Italy in September 1981 and received rave reviews.
Many foreign audiences said, "If a Chinese art film (referring to "The Clever Duck") participates in the competition, it will definitely win." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="149" >04 The big fuss in tiangong, the peak of The Beauty Factory</h1>
In 1964, co-directed by Wan Liming and Tang Cheng, written by Li Kewei and Wan Liming, and art designed by Zhang Guangyu, which lasted for 4 years, "Big Trouble in the Sky" was born!
Photo: "The Haunting of heavenly palace" has won many international awards such as the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Short Film Special Award, the London International Film Festival Annual Outstanding Film Award and many other international awards.
Who is "Zhang Guangyu"? Outside of the animation world, Zhang Guangyu may be more famous than Wan Liming, the father of Chinese decorative arts and a cartoonist.
At the same time, he is also the founder of modern Chinese art!
Photo: Zhang Guangyu, a famous Chinese animation artist and one of the founders of the "Chinese School" of animated films
As a "newcomer" in the animation industry, Zhang Guangyu did not care about his authority and face problems at all, and earnestly asked the animation production team to respect the unique creative rules of animation and modify them.
Due to the onset of bronchitis, Zhang Guangyu only came to do some preliminary design work, and did not deeply participate in the production of "Big Trouble Tiangong".
Photo/ Stills of "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace"
In the end, the final draft of Sun Wukong's "Haunting Heavenly Palace" was completed by the chief animation designer "Yan Dingxian".
Later, Yan Dingxian co-directed "Nezha Noisy Sea" and "Golden Monkey Descending Demon", etc., and was known as the "father of the Monkey King".
Director Wan Liming showed an amazing level beyond the times in the audiovisual language of "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" - art films are also films, and they also need to master the film techniques.
Photo/ Fragment of "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace"
He absorbed Soviet montage techniques and applied them to traditional Chinese styles, which became the "masterpiece" of his lifelong artistic accomplishment.
"Iron Fan Princess" and "Haunting the Heavenly Palace" are the two most stylistic works of director Wan Liming, and both are centered on the unique image of "Sun Wukong". What is even more rare is that the image of Sun Wukong has been continued and grown in the creation of Mr. Wan Liming.
From drilling into the belly of the Iron Fan Princess to making a small fuss in the heavenly court, Wan Liming adapted the oppressed fate of Sun Wukong in the original work as the final victory, and also showed Wan Liming's consciousness as a great artist to pursue free expression.
When reviewing the creative process of "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", Wan Liming said: "Sun Wukong's appearance and inner qualities include the characteristics of monkeys, gods and people that he has, and they are indispensable. His unique animation creation has given Chinese people a humanized interpretation and a new destiny of "Sun Wukong", which has been familiar for thousands of years, and has been strongly resonated by generations of Chinese audiences.
After "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", it was in the special period of the national political movement, and the Shangmei Factory began to enter a "period of silence".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="150" >05 After Nezha noisy sea, Shangmei Factory went into decline</h1>
In 1979, in order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shangmei Factory lasted 15 months to create China's "first large-scale color widescreen animation feature film" "Nezha Noisy Sea", and since then, the majestic peaks have risen from the ground and stood side by side with the twin peaks of "The Haunting Of heavenly palace"!
In the same year, Shangmei Factory released a new puppet show "Avanti", which became the common memory of the post-80s generation.
In June 1980, the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio founded the children's bimonthly magazine "Sun Wukong", which mainly introduced art films, with a circulation of more than 400,000 copies.
In the same year, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio launched the animation film "Snow Child". Unlike the previous comedy style, this time the story ends in tragedy. At the end of the film, the scene where the snow child finally melts and the soul flies into the sky, I don't know how many post-80s cry and faint in the toilet.
In 1981, Shangmei Factory produced "Three Monks", which is humorous and timeless, perfectly interpreting the Chinese proverb "one monk carries water to drink, two monks carry water to drink, and three monks have no water to drink".
In 1984, Shangmei Factory once again launched the masterpiece "Black Cat Sheriff", which became one of the original classic animations.
Since its broadcast in 1984, the anime has been loved by a wide audience, especially children and teenagers, and has become a good memory for the post-80s generation.
Photo/ Clip from "Black Cat Sheriff"
In 1984, Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata visited China and presented film from The Valley of the Wind to the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, where they had an in-depth exchange. To their disappointment, the top management of the US film studio is most concerned about the system of per-piece remuneration.
In this regard, Takahata said, "The exploration of Chinese animation art films has declined after the reform and opening up, because of the pursuit of profits. Miyazaki, on the other hand, showed "unparalleled disappointment with Chinese animation."
Photo: Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata
On June 27, 2014, Takahata was interviewed for nearly six hours in Tokyo by a special correspondent from Southern Weekend. This is also the first time that a central figure in Ghibli has been interviewed by a Chinese reporter.
Takahata said that he and Miyazaki both appreciated and valued the works of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio: "Especially Mr. Tewei's ink painting cartoons, which have greatly influenced us. It was only later that blank spaces appeared in the work. It is such a great manufacturer that has lost many animation talents in the chaotic days. Mr. Wan Liming was sent down during this period, and his brother Mr. Wangu Toad was also sent to work in a cadre school in Fengxian County, a suburb of Shanghai. ”
In the 1980s and 1990s, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio produced a series of masterpieces, such as "Hulu Brothers (1986)", "Dirty King (1987)", "Beta and Shuker (1989)", "Zodiac (1995)" and so on.
In the 10 years after the early 1990s, the entire Chinese cultural entertainment industry also entered the lowest trough of 10 years.
With the death of the first generation of Chinese animation masters and the constraints of the system, the core factors of Shangmei Factory gradually disappeared and began to rapidly enter a "recession period"!
In fact, Shangmei Factory has been facing many problems such as insufficient funds, shortage of screenwriters, and lack of production talents and broadcast platforms. After entering the 21st century, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio produced many animation works, but the best works are difficult to appear, and they have begun to embark on the road of no return of "eating the old book".
Photo/ Stills from Beta and Shuk
An article entitled "The Rise and Fall of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio" said: "Exploring the rise and fall of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio is actually a review of the history of China's animation industry, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio once represented the highest level of Chinese animation, but also has a glory that can not be replicated." The dilemma that Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio has encountered and is encountering is also the collective dilemma of Chinese animation. ”
Text/White Ink
Editor/Jiangbei