"Walking alone in the water, where does the inner strength come from?"
Since the start of the broadcast in 2023 and the completion of the last episode update, in more than a month, the eight works of the animated short film collection "China Strange Tan" have been played more than 200 million times on station B, with nearly 5.5 million followers.
After the first two episodes of "Little Goose Summer" and "Goose Goose Goose" were launched together, respectively, because of their stories close to reality, beautiful and weird painting style, and the deep cultivation and expression of traditional culture in the same way, they aroused the enthusiasm of the public, and the heat of watching and discussion was like "releasing rockets", and many second creations came into being, and the barrage once filled the screen, so that the staff had to do technical processing to ensure that the audience could watch the movie normally after opening the episode.
A still from "Summer of the Little Goblin"
Some commented: ""China Wonder has broken the circle into a 'social currency'."
Produced by Shanghai Art Film Studio and bilibili, and directed by Chen Liaoyu, associate professor and animation director of Beijing Film Academy, "Chinese Curious Tales" is based on the theme of "China's Curious Stories", which is independently created by the young generation of local animation creators under the same theme.
As early as 1957, at the beginning of the establishment of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, the first director Tewei put forward the slogan of "exploring the road of national style". Many classic art films that have been praised to this day are concentrated here. In the following time, there were many waves, and the world changed for many years. Long before the appearance of "Chinese Wonders", we often ask ourselves under various shocks:
Who are we? What is our cultural code? What sets us apart from others? Where do we live in the long scroll of diverse and complex cultures? If you want to take a step, where do you go? Walking alone in the water, where does the inner determination come from?
To some extent, "Chinese Strange Tan" can be seen as a pure and self-directed answer by young animators to these puzzles and questions. At the moment of unfolding, the scenery is clear.
"Goose Goose Goose" stills
We exclusively interviewed Li Zao, deputy general manager of Shanghai Film Co., Ltd. and chief producer of "China Strange Tan", Yu Shui, director of "Summer of Little Monsters" in the series, Hu Rui, director of "Goose Goose Goose", Yang Mu, director of "Linlin", Liu Maoning, director of "Country Bus Took Wang Children and Immortals" (hereinafter referred to as "Country Bus"), directors Chen Lianhua and Zhou Xiaolin of "Xiaoman", and Gu Yang and Liu Kuang, directors of "Commissary".
Their stories and echoes are full of concrete power and jagged thoughts, varied, harmonious but different, but echoing in all directions.
01
A total of eight animated short films were completed by ten creators. Their age distribution is mainly between the "post-80s" and "post-90s", and the difference between high and low is about ten years old. The youngest of them is Liu Maoning, born in September 1994. His experience is simple, and he has been working in animation since graduation. Because of his animation style, he is called "Jia Zhangke of animation" by audiences who like him.
A still from the short film "The Country Bus Takes the King Child and the Immortals" directed by Liu Maoning
Yu Shui, Hu Rui and Zhou Xiaolin all have overseas study, study abroad and work backgrounds.
Gu Yang and Liu Kuang are a couple.
In addition to Liu Maoning, other creators have worked experience and professional identities other than "animation director", including but not limited to: university teachers, fashion brand managers, advertising planning and design, etc.
Li Zao said that "China Qitan" is a completely independent original work that does not rely on any existing IP, and at the beginning of the planning, the core consensus reached by everyone was to "find the combination between traditional culture and modern context" in this exploration. The rich life experiences carried by these creators themselves have become the cornerstone of their ability to "observe and care for modern society" under the influence of "rooted Chinese culture".
A still from "Commissary"
02
It is no accident that Yu Shuikai created a work that is highly related to the real world such as "Summer of the Little Goblin". He pays frequent attention to social and current political news every day, and his favorite movies are "I Am Not the God of Medicine", "Platform", "Big Buddha Plas" and so on.
A still from "Summer of the Little Goblin"
Hu Rui studied Chinese painting for more than ten years when he was a child, "going to the Children's Palace, the wind and rain", at that time he had no idea what impact all this would have on his future and vision. It was not until many years later that he began to contact and study film that he found the "key" of "middle school as the body, western learning as use".
He grew up listening to hiphop, funky, Kafka, Jack London and Maugham, and chose Germany when he studied abroad. But the longer he was immersed in such a culture, the more "he felt the urge to ask: Where am I?"
A still from the short film "Goose, Goose Goose" directed by Hu Rui
03
Hu Rui evaluates others as "not disgusted at all" like Junji Ito, Hu Rui especially likes Junji Ito, but he likes Junji Ito many years ago. At that time, "City Without Streets" and "Beautiful Boy on Cross Street" - they are very imaginative and very profound genius works, including "Tombstone Town", you will find it difficult to calm down after watching it." One day his name can be put with him, he feels "very stained and glorious", but the swirling of the eyes of the scholar in "Goose Goose Goose" and the effect of the enlarged human head are "really not adapted from Junji Ito", that is, he "drinks and drinks a hallucination that his brain is as big as a house".
"Goose Goose Goose" stills
04
Many years ago, Yang Mu saw an exhibition called "Classics and Aesthetics" at the China Millennium Monument, which clearly shows the flow of art in Europe from the classicist period to the industrial revolution. This made him realize that the development of culture must go through a process of change, step by step, little by little, "there is no complete originality", everything grows under the foundation of history and time.
One of the core motifs of "Lin Lin" is "finding identity", which Yang Mu feels is a thing that "cannot be deduced through theory" and must be constantly tried. He had a junior brother with a strong major, but as soon as he graduated, he changed his career to financial sales, and two years later, he suddenly left when he was about to get a large year-end bonus, and came back to him, saying that he still wanted to draw comics.
A still from the short film "Linlin" directed by Yang Mu
"People are self-deceptive or self-deceived, which is relatively pessimistic, I think you can only know what your true self is like if you keep trying, making mistakes, losing yourself, losing yourself, and then you know what your true self is like."
His favorite screenwriter is Charlie Kaufman, a contemporary film giant who gave Yang Mu a "strong theoretical support": "You must speak about yourself, be sincere with yourself, and only in this way can you tell other lonely people that you are not the only one." This convinced him that he was doing the right thing now.
05
Liu Maoning's reading experience is based on "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Before that, his favorite reading was Mo Yan, and he also liked Chen Zhongzhong and Liu Zhenyun. But the shock that Márquez brought to him was unbeatable. "José Alkátio Buendia could still think of the afternoon when he went to see ice as a child before his execution, and then the opening gypsy took the iron stone and evoked the spirituality of all objects in the village..."
Whenever he felt "very hopeless," he would read a few pages of "One Hundred Years of Solitude." "He makes you feel that all life, objects, and relationships between people are so wonderful, mysterious, unique and powerful. Even if he has a miserable life, you feel full of strength, you will not sympathize with him, you will not pity him, but he gives you a strong sense of strength."
06
One of the core stories of "Xiao Man" is how a child encounters the first fears in his life.
The first time Chen Lianhua felt "fear" when she was a child was when she saw a picture book called "Xiong Family Mother", there was a picture of a little girl and her brother going to her grandmother's house, and a bear put on her grandmother's clothes and lay on the bed to sleep. When he said this, he couldn't help but gasp: "It's terrifying..." He continued: "This little girl is very brave, took a special shuttle, said that she would tie the pears on the tree for Xiong Jiapo, and after poking it down, she put it in Xiong Jiapo's mouth, taking the opportunity to poke the bear to death." He kept the book, but until now, even when he saw the book in the bookcase, "I was afraid to see it from afar."
"Xiaoman" stills
When Zhou Xiaolin was in college, she often "took class A and did things B". She is especially " obsessed " with Yukio Mishima " , and also likes Yoshimoto Banana's novels and Yang Tokusho , Iwai Shunji and Takahata Hoon.
"Xiaoman" stills
07
Gu Yang and Liu Kuang have been living in the hutong for eight years. From the small courtyard where they live, only a few corners, as soon as you look up, you can see the moat and the corner tower of the Forbidden City, and a few more steps, Jingshan and Beihai White Pagoda can also be seen. Since they moved into the hutong, more "traditional Chinese things" have rushed towards them. "Commissary" was born here.
A vase in the Treasure Hall of the Forbidden City once made Gu Yang sigh at the beauty of not being tacky and inclusive.
The two went to see a friend's exhibition, which mentioned an ancient crimson peony, and the ancients would take a boat to the pavilion in the center of the lake, just to see this pot of flowers, what color, "very romantic". She likes Feng Zikai, Lao She, and Huang Yongyu, and finds them and their works "life-like and playful".
Beijing hutongs in "Commissary"
At the beginning of the creation of "Chinese Strange Tan", chief director Chen Liaoyu recommended a Japanese children's literature writer named Naoko Anbo to the two people. "It's beautiful and nonsensical, and it's a bit of a brain."
When she was a child, as soon as parents and teachers told them "to make Chinese things", Gu Yang "couldn't suppress it with a rebellious energy", and when she grew up and really started creating one day, she felt "the romance of Chinese things".
A still from "Commissary"
Liu Kuang's perception of a kind of "emptiness" and "subtlety" in Chinese aesthetics is not just pursuing cleanliness or simplicity in the picture, but pursuing an artistic conception: "It is a kind of 'sadness'. For example, if you are very sad today, you will want to go for a drink with your buddies, just drink, people ask you what's wrong, you say it's okay, it's all in the wine."
08
Many of the paintings in Commissary reference paintings by contemporary Chinese artist Wang Yuping. Lines are rarely completely straight, such as trees, houses, and many are irregular shapes. Texture and texture are also mostly pursued "casual" and "free". "If there is a pit in one place, apply it twice, but try to keep it as beautiful as possible."
A still from "Commissary"
Most of Beijing's hutongs themselves are crowded, forced and tortuous, and the geographical space is limited, how can we reflect the relaxation of life in this difficulty of survival? Gu Yang and Liu Kuang made a lot of attempts, one of which was to choose amateurs to dub the characters, and they even hoped that there were some slips of the tongue and mistakes, because this was the truth.
09
Truth - this is also something that Liu Maoning keeps thinking, presenting and doubting in his own creations.
There is almost always a discussion of death in his work. The puppy in "Country Bus", the childhood playmate in "Me and the Magnetite and a Dead Friend", and so on. He does not avoid this proposition because he thinks: "Life is called life because of the existence of death, and if there is no death, there is no life."
Stills from "The Country Bus Took the King Child and the Immortals"
When he was a child, he participated in a village white event, and it was the death of his aunt, who was still in the prime of life. At the funeral, everyone was crying, he and his cousin were fighting, and suddenly his cousin squeaked him, and he laughed out loud when he boarded. "I felt like everyone stopped crying because I laughed, and I immediately felt like I was doing something wrong. Every time I see my aunt's children since then, I feel very guilty, but they seem to have forgotten."
When Liu Maoning returned home for the Chinese New Year this year, Liu Maoning learned that "Wang Child" died of illness.
"The disease took away the royal child."
Stills from "The Country Bus Took the King Child and the Immortals"
10
When Yang Mu was young, he didn't talk and didn't fit in very much, and the way he tried to fit in with the group was "very rigid and deliberate", such as "deliberately making some very embarrassing jokes and telling jokes that would make the audience cold". After a long period of discomfort, he decided to completely cut off the idea of joining a certain group. "There is no contact, and I will recognize what I want little by little."
There is a plot designed in "Lin Lin" - Lin Lin can't change back after eating human food. "This is a symbolic symbol, once you eat human things, your bestiality, your instincts will be lost, you will lose the symbol of 'self'... Fire, the existence that distinguishes populations, is a dividing line."
"Linlin" stills
In a person's life, he will encounter many scenes, many scenes, such "fire", such "food".
Yang Mu said that the problem of a person's personality and the style of his work is like the problem of the "ship of Theseus", and the big ship is constantly growing, repairing, and replacing with the wear and tear of time and the baptism of wind and rain. "When all the parts on his body have been replaced, is he still not the original boat?"
11
First——
In "Summer of the Little Goblin", the gourd that the little pig demon has been carrying is only added to him by water in order to make the shape look better. As the creation progressed little by little, there was a later development: in the first scene he threw the gourd under the tree and ran back to get it; When he went home to visit his relatives, his mother told him to drink more water; At the end, he was given a stuffy stick by Sun Wukong, lying on the ground and passing out, and a little water flowed out of the gourd...
Characters, relationships, foreshadowing, climax, pathos, warmth, all the same.
A still from "Summer of the Little Goblin"
12
In the process of creating "Xiao Man", Chen Lianhua and Zhou Xiaolin saw many "authentic" ancient paintings, including "Qingming Shanghe Map", "Five Ox Diagram", "Fighting Tea Map", "Jiang Xing Chuxue Map", "Baizi Map", "Baby Play Map" and so on. They emphasize "not second-hand", "not improved". Chen Lianhua has an ambition to "restore" the painting and writing in traditional culture to the greatest extent through animation creation, which requires great patience and steadiness, and he - "endure."
"When you see the demeanor of the ancients on a painting, which is completely different from modern people, that touch will bring very strong motivation for a long time." Chen Lianhua said.
"Xiaoman" stills
13
"You feel familiar" - this is the feeling that many works in Hu Rui's "Chinese Wonders" bring to the viewer. Yu Shui deliberately borrowed it to explain the "context of Chinese" in his mind. "It's like a temple you've been to, an ancient painting you've seen in a museum, a book of villains you read when you were a child... Many people say that "Chinese Wonders" makes them dream back to their childhood, I think this is a kind of awakening of cultural memory."
Oh, to say more here, throughout the interview, Yu Shui showed a gentle and humble and auspicious attitude, repeatedly emphasizing that "99% of people in the world are small people"; Speaking of the "talented netizens" after the various creations and affectionate views of "Summer of the Little Monster", they are grateful and moved by the eternal warmth in people's hearts; When we eloquently asked him "why there are no women among the workers, why the only female role is an overly 'traditional' mother figure", he even looked panicked and innocent: "I really didn't think about it... But I really thought that "Journey to the West" seems to be all male monsters managing male monsters, and I have never seen "male and female monsters"... But I really need to learn more about what you said, and I need to think more about the perspective of female audiences in the future."
Only once, Yu Shui's response to the question was quite categorical and even tough, that is, when we asked, can the little pig demon really get out of the Wave Mountain?
"He will definitely walk out of Langlang Mountain, he will definitely be."
A still from "Summer of the Little Goblin"
14
The little pig demon has now become an irreplaceable representative of "migrant workers".
On the other side, "Goose, Goose Goose" was covered by all kinds of speculations and interpretations. Hu Rui rubbed the little finger joint of his right hand, which was seriously deformed because he had been painting with the mouse for many years, and his face was aggrieved, and he was angry:
"The scholars in "Goose Goose Goose" are also migrant workers! He's a courier guy! Delivery riders! He's a laborer!" His identity was not written in the original work "Goose Cage Scholar", and "Cargo Lang" was added by Hu Rui when he created for the second time, he said that he could not write a story of a prince and nobleman, and what he wanted to write was also a helpless ordinary person.
"Goose Goose Goose" stills
It's just that he encountered an absurd reality: "You don't know how things will develop next, what is going on in the heart of the person on the other side, you can only guess."
Once he enters the game, people will face trade-offs, no matter what status and identity he has, he will be "not so free, not so affordable, can put down, will be entangled, suffering from gains and losses."
"Goose Goose Goose" stills
When Hu Rui was studying in Germany, he once traveled to Venice, and he was accustomed to seeing a scenery "to the end", and he encountered such a place for the first time. "The city is cut to pieces, it's all alleys, and when you go into it and turn the corner, you will see a square, and it will suddenly open up."
It can be seen that it is really difficult for us to roughly define which of the amount of information contained in a literary and artistic work is innately carried and which is acquired; What is original and what is borrowed; Which ones are Eastern, which are Western...
Chen Liaoyu, the chief director of "China Qitan", said of the principle of "exploring the road of national style" that Shanghai Art Film Studio has always adhered to, that the key to the matter is not to define in advance what is "national", but to respect the individuality of each creator - they live in the moment, live in the understanding and understanding of each cultural integration, and they bring their own learning and experience to this day, not pedantic and not conservative. "What are these creators like, what is the 'national style road' and its uniqueness in our current creation."
The "road" is not a restriction on people's progress, but a vastness that people walk out.
15
For Li Zao and her partners, the core of the words "exploring the road of national style" is not all about "nationality", but about "probing".
"Exploration, not necessarily successful or happy, everyone will accept it immediately, it is experimental and risky." Before the broadcast, she was "apprehensive" in her heart, but she knew that some choices must be made and resolutely implemented: including choosing to cooperate with the B station with the audience's rich experience in watching animation and the closest interaction between the audience; Bring more thinking and perspective into these works for commercial development, and so on.
The controversy and heated discussion caused by "Goose, Goose and Goose" made Hu Rui and Li Zao see the same thing: hope.
Where do you want it?
"There may be more different works accepted in the future. Because the audience is ready for that." Hu Rui said that even if some viewers will criticize his work as "too shallow" and "too flattering", this is a good thing in his opinion. "It shows that the audience is thinking about it, judging and expressing at the same time... The audience is diverse and worth looking forward to."
Walking this road with "Chinese Wonders" also made Li Zao rethink the meaning of "cultural confidence", and now she believes that there are two more processes to go through before reaching "confidence", first resonance, then recognition. Resonance is relatively easy to do, but after resonance, it may be like or disgust - but even disgust will make people complete another reverse identification. It is this kind of continuous thinking, discussion and repetition that people can gradually achieve "belief" and "confidence" in their hearts.
There is also inheritance and iteration in this "confidence", and the "open mind" and "life attitude of finding fun in the pale life" mentioned by director Chen Liaoyu from the predecessors of Shanghai Meiying Film are integrated into the works of young creators in the feedback and receipt written by handwriting.
As one of the producers, Shanghai Meiying invited several veteran artists to form an art committee to check the quality of the eight animation works. In the storyboard opinions written by two elderly filmmakers Chang Guangxi and Ling Shu for "Goose, Goose and Goose", we met the serious advice that "can be more extreme" that surprised more than one interviewed director.
"It can be more extreme" is the creative spirit of iterative Koshi. Hu Rui said that he would frame the "encouragement" and "encouragement" written by the old gentlemen and put them in front of the workbench to draw strength.
In this sense, China is not a portfolio, but a platform for letting go and performing, expressing and communicating, identifying with and doubting, meeting and believing, and happening at the same time.
Chief director Chen Liaoyu hand-painted the He Tu
16
Liu Maoning is actually not sure what kind of connection he should maintain with the "national style".
"Perseverance and renunciation are false propositions. It's hard to say what you don't stick to, it's hard to say what you're sticking to, and you don't know what you're giving up, because the nutrients of your life are already here, we can't close ourselves off, and you can't avoid it... Creation is to help you take care of the elements of your life."
He has never been able to learn to drive. This often makes him think - "very painful thinking", is he a qualified adult? In fact, it was also a struggle for him to choose to "disagree that he has grown up".
In fact, the pain caused by this entanglement of "should I become an adult" be the same as the torture brought to him by "what is Chinese culture".
Stills from "The Country Bus Took the King Child and the Immortals"
17
Before the end of "Linlin", Yang Mu let all the balance between "black" and "white" be disturbed, and tragedy was born. And then the real end is when everything goes to peace.
"Lin Lin chose not to integrate into human society and accepted his true self; Little Tiger went against his father's legacy and became a farmer, perhaps fruitless, but able to live peacefully." "Both sides held the border, so a different balance was reached... Maybe not eternal, but who can say what eternity is."
Executive Producer/Sherry Ning
Editor/Timmy
Interview/Xu Yujie Lu Yanni
Written by/Lu Yanni