Speaking of Chinese-style animation, in addition to the classic works of the early Shangmei, the most outstanding in recent years is the "Chinese Choir" series, which was recently renamed "Chinese Ancient Poetry Animation" and launched the last short film of the series, "Wing Mei".
The hopeless first love in "Acacia", the lively New Year in "Yuan Day", the tear-inducing maternal love in "Wandering Zi Yin", the mind that is not tired of fame in "Drinking on the Lake after the First Sunny Day", and the home-country feelings based on war and diplomacy in "Night Thoughts", each short film in this series is based on a popular ancient poem as the core, telling the story of the literati who took place in Jiading. "Wing Mei" returns the focus of the story to love and ideals, telling the story of the Qing Dynasty calligrapher and painter Zhou Hao.
A teenager who has carved bamboo as his lifelong desire to find the most beautiful in the world. Although he loved plum blossoms, he never carved plum blossoms, nor did he ever carve beautiful people. When he was young, he once saved a plum blossom, but he did not think that this plum blossom was intentional, transforming into a beauty, called Mei Niang, accompanying him. Although good feelings are hidden in the heart, the young boy does not yet understand what this emotion means. He only knew that he had to take his master's words to heart—before he died, the master handed him a piece of Xiangfei bamboo and told him that only by finding the most beautiful thing in the world could he carve it on it.
For this entrustment, he exhausted the mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, searched for the treasures of the snowy mountains, and left his back to Mei Niang again and again. But along the way, he never found the beauty in his heart. Until the end of the story, he returned to his hometown with a sickbed, and on the occasion of his death, Mei Niang incarnated again. Looking at her eyebrows, looking at her familiar face, he finally woke up, it turned out that the most beautiful in the world was the love of his heart, the things that he had pursued for half a life were around, and it turned out that thousands of rivers and mountains were her appearance. At this moment, he finally realized that mei niang was the plum blossom he had saved.
The story is still the BE aesthetic we are familiar with, and the painting style is still the style that we are very familiar with.
Ink Jiangshan sets the tone for the whole work, which is a completely Chinese style work. The opening scene is like an ink painting scroll with Jiangnan water vapor, mountains stacked with greenery, misty bamboo forest, a weeping plum standing proudly, just like the beauty of the generation and independent, elegant and elegant.
The middle of the story unfolds from the perspective of the male protagonist, and with his travels, we see the beautiful rivers and mountains with picturesque seasons.
After the death of the master, the overall tone of the picture became a cool color system, and the painting style became more like the wind bone of ink painting. There are mountains, a sea of clouds, a lone pine independence, and the daunting Zhongnan Mountain.
The picture that the male protagonist "sees" when he is confused is even more shocking, the wind and snow end in the South Mountain, and a dragon roars and circling, as if mistakenly entering a myth and legend.
As the most "atmospheric" character in the work, Mei Niang's portrayal is also impressive. When she transforms into a human body, her eyebrows are green bamboo, her ears are mountains and rivers, and her lips are red plums, and the most beautiful thing in the world is just a cluster of her jaws. Even in the end, in order to save Zhou Hao, Mei Niang had to exhaust her own strength, turn into a plum blossom, and wither away in a flash, we can also feel the beauty of the silence from the withered grass.
At the end of the film, as in the previous short films, the production team will slowly tell the life of Zhou Hao, and specifically mention that he has "never carved a lady in his life, nor has he carved a plum blossom", at this moment, history and animation seem to have merged, although we all know that there can be no real plum lady in the world, but such a classical romantic imagination will still be moving.
In addition, although the story is born out of imagination, although one of the protagonists is not a human, when we watch this animation, we will not think that this is a vain, sen sen demonic "Liaozhai" style story. On the contrary, the main creative team is pursuing the truth as much as possible and has added a lot of research. Although the story is not real, the animation gives it a particularly realistic temperament as if it really happened, while retaining the beauty, without any sense of strangeness.
As the last in the series, this short film is much longer and better than before. On the basis of maintaining the original advantages, "Wing Mei" also completed the fusion of picture, plot and music more breakthroughly, so that the completion and expression of the entire animation reached the extreme. I also hope that in the future, I can see new works by this team.