"Chang'an 30,000 Li": a "stone throwing to ask the way" for domestic animation
"As long as the poem is there, Chang'an will be there."
"Chang'an 30,000 Li", which may be the most suitable for the nature of the summer schedule, was released on Saturday, and the chasing light animation used 48 Tang poems in the 168-minute film. The film connects countless famous Tang literati with the lifelong friendship of Gao Shi and Li Bai, and strives to truly restore a panoramic Tang painting scroll. For lovers of traditional culture, this may be no less exciting than Marvel Comics fans to see familiar superheroes on the big screen for the first time.
Since its release two days ago, the box office has exceeded 200 million, and Douban has a score of 8.0, which is not a surprise. For the audience, the content has its own likes and dislikes, but for the industry, the value of this attempt itself cannot be ignored - this is a stone question on the boundaries of domestic animated films, and its final word-of-mouth performance and box office performance are largely an important reference for whether latecomers can continue to move along this line of thought.
For the company Chasing Light Animation, after cultivating the animation industry to the tenth year, the work handed over is "Chang'an 30,000 Li", which is also an intertext. Since the first film "Little Door God", Chasing Light has a soft spot for transmitting traditional Chinese culture, and has gone through different stages of exploration, forming two mature product lines of "New Legend" and "New God List", and now it has opened a new journey through the "New Culture" series.
Yu Zhou, co-founder of Chasing Light Animation, told Poison Eye that there are still many things that the "New Culture" series can develop in the future, "The Tang and Song dynasties, the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the Qin and Han dynasties, the four masterpieces, and even some modern history, are all within the scope of possible development." "Whether for the industry or for chasing light, its future is worth imagining.
This means that there may not be anything that a live film can do and an animated film should not do. For animation to be truly all-aged, all audiences are likely to see it, and of course, first of all, it must be able to tell any story.
Three years to paint the Great Tang Dynasty
After doing the "New God List" and "New Legends" series, Chasing Light first realized that in addition to these fantasy legends, there are many real historical figures and stories in Chinese culture, which are also rich treasures and worth making in the way of animated films, so there was a decision to launch the third product line "New Culture" series.
To do a new cultural series, the first thing that comes to mind is naturally Datang, because this is a period of the most cultural, political, economic and international influence. And Li Bai is the most familiar among the many Tang poets. The movie with Li Bai as the protagonist is about to come out.
This is an ideal material, but it is not destined to be an easy task. Director Xie Junwei told Poison Eyes that the first major difficulty faced by the team was how to organically connect many historical figures, "so we thought of a big theme, that is, the spirit of the unremitting pursuit of ideals by Tang Dynasty poets, and to do series under this theme." "Li Bai has been adrift all his life, and if everything is presented in detail, I am afraid that he will not be able to play 168 minutes, so the main creator has discarded many passages that are not closely related to the theme.
Gao Shi is another important solution they found in the process of exploring history. Perhaps for most audiences, Gao Shi is not a familiar poet, and it is difficult to expect that it will be told from Gao Shi's perspective in a film with Li Bai as the protagonist.
Gao Shi in "Chang'an 30,000 Li"
For the two directors, the "encounter" with Gao Shi was also a surprise. It is understood that the main creative team prepared a book list of more than 100 books in the early script preparation process, divided the labor to different people, and then did a reading sharing meeting. Gao Shi was chosen as the protagonist because he found that the "Old Book of Tang" wrote, "Since the Tang Dynasty, the poet is only suitable." "This means that Gao Shi was the highest of all the poets of the Tang Dynasty who reached the highest position on the road to the top." And Li Bai is a representative of very high artistic achievements in the public impression, so one of them is the peak of entering the world, and the other is the peak of birth. It just so happened that the two were good friends, and their experience could connect many other poets, so they chose Gao Shi as one of the protagonists. Xie Junwei said.
From another point of view, compared with "geniuses" like Li Bai, Gao Shi's struggle process is closer to ordinary people, and it is a role that makes it easier for ordinary audiences to substitute. The main creator also considered that the pace of the biopic was relatively slow, so he adopted the method of parallel narrative on the inside and outside, "The inner line is to observe Li Bai from the perspective of Gao Shi, and the outer line is to observe Gao Shi from the perspective of Cheng Gonggong." Because there has always been an army pressure outside, it can let Gao Shi pull the audience back while telling the story. Director Zou Jing said.
After finding the perspective of understanding history, the question comes to how to present history on the ground. Especially for animated films, how to visually present so many familiar poems.
For example, the passage of "Will Enter Wine" that impressed many audiences is the climax of the whole film determined by the main creative team at the beginning, "Because this poem contains the summary of Li Bai's life for half of his life, he is so dashing and free, and so tragic and heroic, and is intertwined with various emotions, so we hope to show its artistic conception through this fantasy way." ”
Not only poetry, but also because the age span runs through almost the entire life of Gao Shi and Li Bai, they face a huge workload in various technical aspects such as scenes and characters. There are 25 versions of the protagonist Gao Shi alone, and Li Bai has 15 versions. This also makes "Chang'an 30,000 Li" one of the most difficult and complex works since the establishment of chasing light animation.
Do animated films have boundaries?
After the previous "New God List" and "New Legends" series have repeatedly received box office results and praise, Chasing Light certainly knows what kind of animated movies the market prefers, but this time they don't want to blindly obey this like.
For example, the art style design is different from the previous work, knowing that the "New God List" and "New Legend" series have accumulated a lot of "face value fans", "Chang'an 30,000 Li" adopts a more stylized design idea. The main creator referred to the proportions and characteristics of the Tang Warriors, and designed the current version according to the spiritual temperament of the Tang Dynasty, "because the upper body proportion of the characters is relatively large, this is to emphasize a very prominent spiritual temperament in the Tang Dynasty, that is, self-confidence and inclusiveness, making us feel that there are endless possibilities." ”
Another example is the 168-minute film, which broke the historical record of domestic animated films. Chasing Light certainly knew what 168 minutes meant for theater scheduling and audience decision-making, but they did it even so. "We can also make it a more commercial, maybe 100-minute or 120-minute version," the creator said. But our original intention in doing the 'New Culture' series is actually to hope that the choices and spirits of these poets can move the audience and let the audience think and learn. So there is a layer of responsibility on the body, if the chasing animation is not done, probably no one will do such a film. ”
But the biggest breakthrough is to choose the way of historical biopics for animated film narrative, which is very rare in the history of domestic animated films.
From an industry perspective, biopics appear in animation, further blurring the invisible boundary between film and animation. Most of the domestic animated films in the past were fantasy and adventure genres - the protagonist shared some extraordinary ability, traveled through time and space from heaven to earth, and finally defeated the villain and experienced the truth, goodness and beauty.
Of course, there are many good works in such narratives, but they can only provide one taste of dishes. And when more genres and narrative methods, even in live-action movies are minority, there are also opportunities to enter animated films, animation will not always be understood as a certain solidified type, but only a means of presentation.
To present the style of Tang culture, of course, there can also be options for fictional stories and fantasy colors, such as "Chang'an Twelve Hours" and "The Legend of the Demon Cat", which are excellent cases in recent years. The reason why he decided to adopt the biopic method is also because Chasing Light wants to respect historical figures as much as possible and reflect the thick and serious side of history.
"Chang'an Twelve Hours" "The Legend of the Demon Cat"
Of course, this means risk at the level of commercial returns, but Chasing Light has not worried about this matter, "Of course, we all hope that the box office will be good, but if the box office is not so good, I believe it will also become a very classic work, so it is also very worth doing." Yu Zhou said.
What's more, in the grammar of biopics, the main creative team also found the unique value of animation. Zou Jing believes that animated films certainly have their expressive advantages, but the aesthetics in Eastern culture itself have a subtle side, and the principle that has been maintained when making this film is to restrain their vigorous desire for animation creation, "There are some parts that can be drawn, but we may choose to leave blank." ”
In Xie Junwei's view, animation also has more possibilities for expansion in terms of styling and performance. For example, the young Du Fu in the film, he can make the audience realize that Du Fu was not born with a worried image of the country and the people, he also had a naughty and cute side when he was young, "This naughty cuteness is somewhat exaggerated, and it is particularly suitable for expression through animated films." Including Li Bai and Gao Shi such a large age span, on the contrary, animated films have more advantages to complete this multi-faceted shaping. ”
The young Du Fu in "30,000 Li of Chang'an"
In the eyes of the creators, the value provided by this film is not the same for audiences of different ages. Children read poetry, elders read history, but they all have the same positive energy. To a large extent, this is also a feasible direction for domestic film creators to do the main theme narrative.
It does not preach directly, but uses the way of restoring history to give the viewer natural thinking, "In fact, the ancients and these things we experienced are actually just an external difference, but they are essentially the same." Then what kind of choices they faced, what choices they made, what kind of life they achieved, I hope to give you some inspiration. Zou Jing said.
Whether it is an animated film or a live-action film, there is still a very broad space for history to be incremented.
It belongs to the "30,000 li" of chasing the light
"Chinese teams tell Chinese stories to Chinese audiences" is Chasing Light's positioning for itself. Since the earliest "Little Door God", in fact, chasing light has been constantly trying to break through. It gives personality to the symbols of folk culture, allows them to grow in modern adventures, and eventually realize the meaning of traditional culture.
This kind of narrative method has become common in the foreign film market, but at that time, domestic animated films were rarely involved. Including the later "Atang Adventure" and "Cat and Peach Blossom Yuan", the maturity of the chasing works in this period was limited, and they failed to gain a higher reputation, and the box office performance was not satisfactory.
"Atang Adventure" "Cat and Peach Blossom Source"
The turning point starts with "White Snake: Origin", and its breakthrough significance for domestic animation is that it is an animated film designed for young audiences with a fixed heart, rather than blindly pursuing an all-age orientation. When animated films begin to show love bluntly, the concept that cartoons are only for children will usher in a turning point.
Word of mouth and box office results proved the success of this attempt, and the subsequent "New God List" and "New Legends" series have followed this general direction, using the public's familiarity with mythological and legendary characters as an "introduction", and then adding some modern spiritual cores, thus bringing contrast and freshness. Whether it is Nezha, Yang Jian, Xiaobai and Xiaoqing, they have gained considerable fan accumulation in addition to word of mouth and box office.
However, under the repeated excavation of many practitioners, "mythical fatigue" has become a word that has repeatedly appeared in the media and popular film reviews over the years. Breaking through the mythical "comfort zone" is a self-proof that animation creators across the industry are desperately needed. Fortunately, in recent years, a series of attempts to break through boundaries, such as "Lion Boy" and "Deep Sea", have emerged, and this time "Chang'an 30,000 Li" opens up a branch line in another direction - biopics that strictly restore history. All new attempts have their share of merits, but the value of brave steps is always worth recognizing rather than everyone staying in their comfort zone.
"Lion Boy" "Deep Sea"
It was also a decade of booming years for the animated film industry, and if the main market test for White Snake: Origins was how to pull more young audiences into cinemas and settle them into a regular audience. So what "Chang'an 30,000 Li" wants to do now is to reach more audiences who may not have the habit of watching animated movies, "It's like saying that some middle-aged people in their forties and fifties may not go to see animated movies at ordinary times." Like our 'New Legend', 'New God List' series, etc., he may not be our target audience, but he is our target audience for "Chang'an 30,000 Li". Yu Zhou mentioned.
Standing at the company's tenth anniversary, Yu Zhou believes that the team chasing light is "already in a relatively healthy state." The reason is that the company has both a core team that has been accompanied by ten years and a young enough new blood.
According to Yu Zhou, in the production team of "Chang'an 30,000 Li", there are many people who did "Little Door God" back then. At the same time, Chasing Light also has many new colleagues, the average age of the company is 29 years old, and some post-95 talents have also begun to take important positions.
"I put a lot of emphasis on the team, because for any individual, he can't be a director without the team." This is also the core reason why Chasing Light has only appointed internal talents as directors for so many years, Yu Zhou believes that only directors who have grown up internally can be familiar with the working methods of Chasing Light and achieve better team cooperation effects.
Xie Junwei and Zou Jing are both the first time to serve as the chief director, the former is the animation director of many works such as "New God List: Nezha Reborn" and "White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery", and the latter is the storyboard chief of "White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery". Yu Zhou revealed, "We always like to have two people as directors together, because this tends to complement each other. ”
"New God List: Nezha Reborn" "White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery"
At present, the chasing animation basically follows the steady rhythm of three projects rotating at the same time, one project takes three years, and one film is produced a year. Therefore, although the project is independent from the project, the whole chasing light is a team, and when a project moves from the early stage to the middle and late stages, it means that the preliminary work of the next project will come in. At present, Chasing Light's next work "White Snake: Floating Life" has also entered a relatively intense production stage.
At the end of each project, Chasing Light will have a wrap-up meeting on the project, and the regrets and shortcomings of the project often become the goals to be achieved in the next project. "We've been doing this for 8 rounds, starting with Little Door God. If it is a real film, a crew will break up after filming, and it can only be said that they will cooperate later. But in the case of animated films, hundreds of us have always been together, and the cohesion and tacit understanding are getting stronger and stronger with one work after another. ”
White Snake: Floating Life
Facing the next decade, Yu Zhou believes that the most valuable thing is that the direction of chasing light is clear, "As far as the 'new culture' series is concerned, it will definitely not be completed in 10 years." This 'New Legend' and 'New God List' will also have at least four or five works that can be ranked in the future. ”
Different series have different temperaments. For the "New Culture" series, Yu Zhou made it clear that it will be based on real people and real historical backgrounds, and will not be forcibly linked between different works to form a certain concept of "universe".
After all, a better brand effect than a forcibly connected "universe" is a label that has been producing high-quality works. From this decade onwards, chasing light may leave an impression on a whole new group of audiences.