The world of animation is like a vast universe, full of wonder and imagination. This year's Shanghai International Film Festival's "SIFF Animation" unit has many masterpieces, and will introduce a number of new animation films with different styles to you in two batches, and today announced the first batch of films, including:
Irish animation director Tom Moore's "Irish Trilogy" – The Secret of the Book of Kells, Song of the Sea, Wolfwalker; The Facelift, an animated film tribute to Hitchcock's Horror; sanskrit animation The Honest Cow; and the European best-selling comic adaptation of the animated blockbuster Film The Wonderful Journey of Yakari.
Back in Shanghai, the physical Freedom Gundam erection statue recently completed in the main body of the Pudong Golden Bridge has attracted the attention of many "Gundam fans" and on-site onlookers. Under the timeline of the cosmic century, Mobile Suit Gundam is a highly free "Gundam Universe", spawning countless classic works that have captured audiences of different generations with the times. This year, the Shanghai International Film Festival selected eight new and old Gundam theatrical editions for a series of screenings, presenting a great gift to the majority of Gundam fans.
The Secret of the Book of Kells
The Secret of Kells
-2009-
Highlights: The pinnacle of medieval island art painting
One of Irish animation directors Tom Moore's "Irish Trilogy" tells the story of Viking-time Ireland where a young monk helps a scribe complete the Book of Kells. Moore prepared for this film for ten years, cleverly borrowing elements such as Celtic mythology and Irish poetry, imagining the treasures of Ireland, the pinnacle of island art painting, and the origin of the Gospel book "The Book of Kells", drawing on the traditional art and history of medieval painting, breaking the conventional animation narrative, integrating speculation into the magical world, composing a real and illusory early Irish folk song with exquisite and colorful lines and ethereal music. The film won the Audience Choice Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
Song of the Sea
Song of the Sea
-2014-
What to watch: Cute elves are right next to you
Irish animation director Tom Moore is part two of the "Irish Trilogy". Adapted from folklore, it tells the story of a young boy who lost his mother at an early age and discovers that his sister has a strange illness and decides to help her get through it. Moore collaborated with studios in Ireland, Denmark, Belgium and Luxembourg to complete the animation, continuing the two-dimensional pencil hand painting style of the previous work, combining personal childhood experiences, embedding famous Landmarks in Ireland, and embarking on an adventure journey through a traditional family that travels between magic and reality, quietly offering elven elegy hidden in the city. The poems of the great Irish poet Yeats dot the dots, metaphorically the main idea in the form of linguistic symbols. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The film won the Best Animated Film Award at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival in 2015.
Wolfwalker
Wolfwalkers
-2020-
What to watch: The Darkest Werewolf "Sisterhood"
Irish animation director Tom Moore, part iii of the Irish Trilogy, tells the story of a wolf-hunting girl in the seventeenth century when she suddenly discovers herself to be a wolf walker, and even more bizarre things follow. Moore takes the hand painting style to the extreme, combining watercolor paintings, woodblock prints and other painting types, richly presenting a variety of scene categories, deeply depicting the psychological growth of personal identity transformation through the perspective of children, and uncovering the history of war between Ireland and Britain through the confrontation between wolfwalkers and humans. British power actor Sean Bing dedicated his voice to this film, brilliantly playing the role of hunter father. The film was nominated for the 2021 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Cosmetic solution
Beauty Water
What to watch: Aimei lost her life
Based on the comic book of the same name by cartoonist Wu Chengyuan, it tells the story of a fat girl who wants to easily become beautiful and buys plastic surgery water at a high price, but unexpectedly falls into the quagmire of plastic surgery. Compared with the original work, this film uses soft science fiction concepts, combines two-dimensional and three-dimensional animation, cleverly lays the foreshadowing, and integrates social issues and the creator's childhood past into the plot. The film uses elegant classical music to set off beyond common sense, and pays homage to Hitchcock's "Horror" through amazing reversals, revealing the characteristics of human nature and social value orientation.
Honest cows
Punyakoti
Highlights: Sanskrit animation
Director Ravshankar Van Catswalan's self-written and self-directed feature film animation debut, adapted from a Kannada folk song based on the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, tells the story of the Vedic era, due to the destruction of humans, the forest gradually destroyed, a hungry tiger wants to eat a sincere cow. Through crowdfunding, Ravishankar has joined hands with more than 30 independent animators from India, Romania and Brazil to skillfully blend shadow puppetry with the popular geometric block puppet art style in southern India, showing the conflict between animals and humans, and conveying the true meaning of living in harmony with nature. The famous music master Elijaraya was touched by the story and took the initiative to ask for the soundtrack of the film.
Fantastic trip to Yakari
Yakari, A Spectacular Journey
Highlights: The first big movie in Europe's best-selling comics
Yakari is a best-selling European comic strip since its inception in 1973, and the animated series of the same name also has two versions, 1983 and 2005, of which the 2005 version has been broadcast for more than a decade. Xavier Giacometti was the director of the 2005 animated series, on the basis of which he made the first animated film of the Yakari Universe. The film tells the story of Indian Sioux teenager Yakari, who can understand the speech of animals and decides to set out to pursue a BMW. Based on the expansion of the original content, combined with myths and legends, the film shows the pure friendship between animals and humans, using soft light tones to bring a lively and wild adventure.
Mobile Suit Gundam I.
MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM I
-1981-
Highlights: The "Origin" of the Gundam Series Theatrical Edition
In 0079, side3, the farthest cosmic colony city on Earth, declared itself the Principality of Gion and waged a war of independence against the Federation Army. The young Amro inadvertently piloted the Gundam and repelled the enemy soldiers, and his will flew with the Gundam! The film is the first of the first animated series in 1979, Mobile Suit Gundam, the first of its all-part theatrical trilogy, edited from episodes 1 to 14 of the TV version, and is the only work in the trilogy that does not have a subtitle. When the film was released, it was accompanied by an unprecedented publicity campaign, which won nearly 1 billion yen at the box office and set off a social boom. It is the "origin" of the Gundam theatrical version of the film.
Mobile Suit Gundam II Lament Warrior Chapter
MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM II
Soldiers of Sorrow
Highlights: The second part of the Gundam Classic Theatrical Trilogy
This film is the second part of the theatrical trilogy of the animated series Mobile Suit Gundam, edited from episodes 16 to 31 of the TV version. In this episode, Amro, who has become the gundam pilot, continues to fight every day in the cutting-edge battleship "White Base", and his ability as a New Type (new human) is gradually awakened. With the continuous fighting against strong enemies and the sacrifice of comrades-in-arms, Amro is also growing. Unlike the early 1980s, when film publicity liked to use the name "love", the film ironically used a homophonic "lament" word in the title, setting off the theme and being playful. In addition, the painting supervisor An Yanlianghe made some of the original paintings for the theater version to be more suitable for the theater, which is also a major attraction of this film.
Mobile Suit Gundam III meets in the cosmic chapter
MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM III Encounters in Space
-1982-
Highlights: Yasuhiko and the dramatically improved theatrical trilogy
The "White Base" returns to the universe. The awakened new human Amro piloted the Gundam to defeat the repeatedly attacking Gion army, with remarkable results. Amro's spirit resonates strongly with the young girl Lara Sim, but the battle ultimately leads to a tragic fate. The film is the finale of the theatrical trilogy of Mobile Suit Gundam, edited from episodes 31 to 43 of the TV version. The release time of this film was eight months away from the second part, mainly because Yasuhiko Ryowa quit due to illness after producing the 34th episode of the TV version, so the theatrical version of the content was written by him after spending a long time to re-correct a large number of contents, so that the quality of the film's drawing was greatly improved, and it won the first place in the box office of the animated film that year after its release.
Mobile Suit Z Gundam: Heir to the Stars
MOBILE SUIT Z GUNDAM
A New Translation Heirs
to the Stars
-2005-
Highlights: 20 years later, the screen reappears "Z Gundam"
After the success of the theatrical trilogy of "Mobile Suit Gundam", the "Father of Gundam" Yuki Tomino released the animated series "Mobile Suit Z Gundam" as his sequel in 1985, which is also a classic in the hearts of fans. In 2005, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the broadcast of Z Gundam, Tomino created a theatrical version of the trilogy of this series, which was the first of the trilogy. The film is set in the cosmic century 0087, seven years after the end of the "One Year's War", the hero Xia Ya alias Kovatro Baguina, joined the anti-Earth federal government organization "Ogu", another important character in the Gundam series, Camus Vidan appeared, and the new cosmic war began.
Mobile Suit Z Gundam II Lovers
MOBILE SUIT Z GUNDAM A New Translation II Lovers
Highlights: A "new interpretation" of the TV version of the full upgrade
In 0087, "Ogu" and "Titans" clashed continuously, and Camus, who devoted himself to "Ogu", came to Earth and met the young girl Feng Murayu, and the two attracted each other. However, the phoenix is actually an enhanced human created by the New Human Institute of titans. This film is the second part of the "Z Gundam" theatrical version of the trilogy, although the new theater version after 20 years of broadcast is also based on the original TV version of the edited story, but a large number of new paintings have been added, through special technical processing and old materials perfect synchronization, and adjusted the format, so that the sound and picture quality is fully upgraded. In addition, Gackt, a well-known singer who is also a fan of Gundam, a friend of Director Yuki Tomino, also sang a new theme song for the theatrical version.
The agitation of Mobile Suit Z Gundam III Stardust is love
MOBILE SUIT Z GUNDAM A New Translation III Love is the
Pulse of the Stars
-2006-
What to watch: The final outcome of the controversy that triggered the canonical history
This film is the finale of the theatrical trilogy of "Z Gundam" commemorating the 20th anniversary of the TV version, which is roughly equivalent to the 33rd to 50th episodes of the TV version, depicting the three-army showdown between "Ogu", "Titans" and "Axis". The various forces are pregnant with ghosts, driving the Z Gundam to the battlefield Camus, to find out the enemy he really should defeat. Although the story framework of the theatrical trilogy basically follows the TV version, Yuki Tomino has boldly deconstructed and restructured it under the name of "A New Translation", especially the final ending is very different from the TV version, which has triggered a fierce debate about which version is the main history, and fans of the Gundam series must not miss it.
Mobile Suit Gundam counterattacks Shaya
MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM Char's Counterattack
-1988-
Highlights: Amro and Shaya's final fateful showdown
In 0093, Xia Ya, who has become the commander-in-chief of the new Gion Army, wants to push the asteroid "Axis" to the earth in order to eliminate the human beings who are constantly polluting the earth's environment. Amro pilots the new lambda Gundam of his own design and fights Shaya. Unlike the "Gundam" and "Z Gundam" theatrical trilogy, which originated from the TV cut version, this film is the first original theatrical version of the gundam series in the history of the gundam series, focusing on amro and Chaya, two old enemies, and ending the story of "Mobile Suit Gundam". In addition, the film was the first Gundam series to introduce CG technology to create some animation, which enhanced the expressiveness of the image, and the theme song composed for the film by the music group "TM NETWORK" led by Tetsuya Komuro was also a hot topic.
Mobile Suit Gundam Flashing Hasavi
MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM Hathaway's Flash
-2021-
Highlights: A new chapter after "Mobile Suit Gundam Counter Attack Xiaya", the beginning of the trilogy
Based on the novel of the same name published by Yuki Tomino between 1989 and 1990, the film is the first of the trilogy project. Set in 0105, twelve years after Mobile Suit Gundam, the film tells the story of Hasavi Noah, who witnessed the battle between Amro and Shaya, raising the anti-flag to the corrupt Earth Federal Government, and can be described as a sequel to "Counter Attack Shaya". Directed by Shukō Murase, director of Organ Abuse, the film was originally scheduled to be released in the summer of 2020 as a commemorative work for the 40th anniversary of the Gundam series, but due to the repeated postponement of the release date due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, Shanghai film fans will be expected to enjoy this latest Gundam masterpiece with Japan at zero hours.
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Note: In case of change in the film schedule, the actual schedule shall prevail.