|writer: Liu Jiaying
| Interview: Fan Yuying
It was night, and the woman, dressed in a fashionable bandeau and low-waisted pants, weaved through the shadows of the skyscrapers. She gritted her teeth, her eyes firm, and her heart cried out an obsession: I am going to save my sister!
Based on the above picture alone, it is difficult for you to think that this is the story of the snake spirit Xiaoqing saving her sister Bai Suzhen. The story of the green snake and the white snake has been passed down for hundreds of years, and this time, it has completely broken through people's imagination.
Of course, this is not the first time that director Wong Ka-kang has subverted and innovated. In 2019, the series of "White Snake: Origins" came out in a stunning way, with a modern expression that broke through the past, and won a high score of 7.8 and a bright result of 460 million at the box office.
Unlike the first, White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery (hereinafter referred to as "Green Snake Robbery") focuses on Xiao Qing. Taking the story of "Water Flooding the Golden Mountain" in "The Legend of the White Snake" as a starting point, it tells the story that after Fahai imprisoned Xiao Bai in the Leifeng Pagoda, Xiao Qing wanted to save his sister but was defeated by Fahai and was beaten into the "Shuluo Illusion". In Shuluo City, Xiaoqing experiences various disasters, meets different people, and embarks on an adventure with the goal of "saving her sister".
What is the production process behind the bizarre story and shocking special effects? The People's Entertainment reporter interviewed the film director Huang Jiakang to tell us the story behind "The Green Snake Robbery".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > spent more than two years studying water to the extreme</h1>
This is a bigger pace of pioneering and innovation than the previous one.
Wong first emphasized the "overhead worldview." The "Shuluo City" created by the film is an overhead world, but also a three-dimensional space with an oriental fantasy style. Almost all the stories are spread out here.
Building a city from scratch is not an easy task for the production team. For Wong: the difficulty lies in how to make the space "believable" and "interesting.". "How big is this city?" How do the people inside survive? What are the skills and weapons of the different factions in the city? Are the rules of doom reasonable? ”
He often thinks from the perspective of the audience. The "Shura City" seen by the audience should be both fresh and familiar. There are shocking ironclad locomotives, steel forests;
There are daily baoqingfang small fox demon open supermarket, xiaoqing reading online modern scene;
It also retains the values in traditional Chinese mythology, such as the four calamities of wind, water, fire and qi, the concepts of reincarnation, reincarnation, and so on.
For example, there is a race named "Luocha" in Shuluo City. "This race is derived from mythological stories, and its fighting power is very strong, and the females are beautiful, while the males are extremely ugly. This is also consistent with the image in the movie. ”
The "blockbuster" special effects of the battle screen are the best of today's domestic animation films. Huang Jiakang said: "In fact, the whole movie is quite expensive. ”
"Flooding the Golden Mountain" as the opening of the movie is the "highlight" agreed by the production team. The polishing of the scene lasts from the first day of the project to the last day of the completion of the film. The production team spent more than two years to study water to the extreme.
Another example is the "Batu Cave" scene, Where Xiaoqing and Fahai fight in an illusory space. In order to express the ambiguity of time loss and the unreality of the scene, the production team innovatively adopted the effect of watercolor, allowing the watercolor to flow with the protagonist's battle. This is a precedent in the world of animated films, bringing the audience a surprising visual enjoyment.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="107" > a story about "obsession."</h1>
Some people say that what guoman lacks is not big production, but "good story". Wong also saw the importance of the story, and the production team spent the longest time polishing the story.
"I don't think it's interesting to redo a story that everyone knows best." Wong Ka Kang said. This is also the reason why the painting style of "Green Snake Robbery" turns and allows Xiaoqing to adventure in an elevated modern world.
The production team spent a lot of time discussing the unfolding of the storyline, the setting of the levels, and the behavior and dialogue of the characters, "If I could do such a thing in this space, it would be credible." In addition to the original characters of "The Legend of the White Snake" such as Qingbai Snake, Fahai, and Xu Xian, there are also some new characters in the movie: masked teenager, Sima Guanren, etc. These characters are not "tool people", but like Xiao Qing, they have "obsessive thoughts" before they fell into Shuluo City, with flesh and blood.
It is worth mentioning that in the first quite eye-catching role- Baoqingfang owner Little Fox Demon appeared in front of the audience again, this little girl with a pipe in her hand was once warmly welcomed by audiences at home and abroad, and in this part, it assumed the role of running through the front and back, making the logic of the story more rigorous.
The first "White Snake: Origins" is full of ancient, aesthetic, romantic style. This time, Huang Jiakang hopes that Xiaoqing can get closer to the perspective of "modern women".
She may not be as perfect as Xiao Bai, grumpy, self-sufficient, and has many small shortcomings. But unlike Xiao Bai's "fairy qi", she is closer to the female characters in real life. "I think through her perspective, we can trigger more empathy for our modern female audience."
In "White Snake: Origins", a sentence "Life is more bittersweet" touched the audience; in "Green Snake Robbery", Huang Jiakang wanted to highlight a word: "obsession".
Huang Jiakang believes that unlike Xu Xian and Xiao Bai who are "in love with a demon" and whose lives are short, the Qingbai sisters have cultivated together for thousands of years, which has surpassed ordinary sisterly friendship and become an inseparable family affection. For Xiaoqing, she has no friends and relatives, the only thing to rely on is Xiao bai, and her survival significance is also Xiao bai. In "White Snake: Origins", Xiao Qing said to Xiao Bai, "No matter what, I will accompany you." This sentence is exactly the emotional core of "Green Snake Robbery".
Xiao Qing's "obsession" to rescue Xiao Bai stems from such emotions. This "obsession" is at the heart of the entire storyline. Huang Jiakang wants to have a discussion with the audience about love, love and obsession through Xiaoqing.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="108" > obsession of a generation of national cartoonists</h1>
During the epidemic, all major industries are facing suspension, which is also a "disaster" for the production team of "Green Snake Robbery". Working from a distance, sending computers to isolated colleagues, in short, doing everything possible to make the production continue. Although it has gone through a very difficult period, the film was released as scheduled, which is also due to everyone's obsession with the work.
Obsessiveness seems to be the characteristic of a generation of national cartoonists.
"In fact, animated films are a high-investment, high-risk state, and many peers can't do half of it because the capital chain is broken." Many people use their own obsession to overcome difficulties. ”
From the peak to the loneliness, and then to the re-rise in recent years, the country has gone through a hundred years, relying on this obsession.
In 1922, the founders of the Chinese animation industry (Wan Brothers) Wan Liming and Wangu Toad created China's first advertising animation short film, and then nearly 20 years of exploration, in 1941, launched the first animated feature film "Iron Fan Princess", creating the "debut is the peak" of the national comic.
Wan Liming once summed it up: As soon as cartoons appeared in China, they parted ways with the West in terms of theme.
It was after watching this anime that Osamu Tezuka, the "god of manga", gave up his profession as a doctor and aspired to become a manga artist.
After the founding of New China, the famous cartoonist Te Wei guided the establishment of the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, wan brothers and many other technical and artistic celebrities joined, and Shangmei became the myth of the national comic, and successively launched "Divine Pen", "Eight Commandments of Pigs Eating Watermelon", "Little Tadpole Finds Mother", "Big Trouble in Tiangong" and other well-known works.
Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata were shocked after watching "Little Tadpole Finds Mother", and their creations were also greatly influenced. At this time, the national comic is still the "golden age", proudly standing in the forest of animation, which amazes the world.
After the "Cultural Revolution" ten years of turmoil, after 1979, the national comic slowly revived, "Nezha Noisy Sea", "Deer Bell", "Avanti", "Three Monks", "Black Cat Sheriff", etc., supported the "Silver Age" of the national comic.
In the late 1990s, due to the lack of industry momentum and policy support, this kind of meticulous film animation began to gradually decline, and American animation and Japanese animation led by Disney quickly occupied the domestic market.
Guoman has experienced a period of barbaric growth, and only a few works such as "Baolian Lantern" and "Journey to the West" animation can stand out. The market is full of all kinds of good and bad, different styles of animation, after the tide faded, the real money and silver slowly appeared.
In 2015, a "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" turned out to be a counterattack with less than 15% of the opening film, earning 956 million yuan at the box office. From this point on, a legend called "The Rise of the Nation" began.
The poster had a sentence printed on it at the time: "This is an era that needs heroes." "The heroic protagonists of the national comic have also returned one by one. In 2019, works such as "White Snake: Origins", "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending", and "Luo Xiaohei" have successively achieved box office success. "The Light of National Comics" and "The Rise of National Comics" have successively appeared on hot topics, Huang Jiakang, dumplings... The names of these chinese cartoonists have gradually approached the public's vision and continue to tell the story of doing a good job in Chinese animation.
Since entering the industry, Huang Jiakang has been doing animation for 20 years, and he has considered giving up in the middle of the way, but he still chose his original intention. In the early days, he participated in the production of Hollywood movies such as "Astro Boy" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", and after experiencing the collapse of the Hong Kong company, he came to the mainland, "looking at it now, it is a very correct path." At that time, the mainland animation company did more OEM work, and there were few opportunities for originality, and chasing light animation found him and wanted to do high-quality original animation. So Huang Jiakang set his sights on traditional Chinese themes, from "Little Door God" and "The Adventure of Atang" to "Cat and Peach Blossom Garden" to "White Snake: Origins", which was a great success.
Speaking of "The Green Snake Robbery", Huang Jiakang sighed: "This story is about Xiaoqing's obsession, and I think it is also reflecting myself and some of the obsessions of our entire domestic animation film industry. This work may not be so perfect in itself, but we will not give up on the obsession, original intention and ideal of animation. ”