Last summer, Chasing Light Animation's "Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles " had a box office of over 1.8 billion. This summer, the third work of the light-chasing animation "White Snake Series" " White Snake: The Floating Life " will meet the audience. Unlike the first two works in the series, "White Snake: The Floating Life" returns to the story of "The True Story of the White Snake" , the film incorporates comedy elements and reproduces classic legends with contemporary values. At present, the box office has exceeded 200 million, and the Douban score is 7.1.
Recently, film directors Chen Jianxi and Li Jiakai were interviewed by Red Star News reporters to reveal the behind-the-scenes stories of the film.
tells a pure folk tale
The story of the movie "White Snake: The Floating Life" is not complicated. A Xuan was reincarnated as Xu Xian, and Xiaobai met and fell in love with Xiaobai on the Broken Bridge in the West Lake. After marriage, the two opened a security hall to treat illnesses and save people, and formed a big family with their sister Xiaoqing and brother-in-law Li Gongfu, enjoying the simple happiness of the earthly world. However, their peaceful life was broken by Fahai, and a battle between man and demon, heaven and emotion began.
Director Li Jiakai introduced that the "White Snake Series" is based on traditional Chinese culture and takes folklore as creative inspiration. The first work " White Snake: The Origin of " tells the "past life" story of Xiaobai and Ah Xuan, which is characterized by its "newness"; " White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery " is a new story based on the classic story. It can be called "strange"; "White Snake: The Floating Life" focuses on the "present life" of Xiaobai and Xu Xian, with the emphasis on "love".
As the third work in the "White Snake Series", "White Snake: The Floating Life" returns to the story of "The True Story of White Snake". The film integrates comedy elements and urban life, and reproduces the classic legend with contemporary values. Talking about the original intention of the creation, Li Jiakai said, "The two previous works took the legend of the White Snake as a starting point. We hope that the third part will return to the starting point of creativity and tell the purest and most traditional folk tales for everyone, so that the next generation of audiences can experience the charm of traditional stories. Charming.”
The story of “The Legend of White Snake” is well-known to every household, how to create something new in the film? Li Jiakai said, "Everyone is familiar with the main story. We need to examine whether each plot can bring the audience and whether it is exciting enough. Corresponding adjustments have also been made in the shaping of characters such as Xu Xian to make them more in line with current values." In "White Snake: The Floating Life", the audience sees Xu Xianhui being braver and more sacrificial.
"White Snake: The Floating Life" has a lot of comedy elements. In the film, Xu Xian is "competed" by his neighbors because of his superb medical skills, and has no time to fall in love with Xiaobai; Xiaobai and Xu Xian's daily life after marriage is full of love. The young couple's lively atmosphere; the best "mouth substitute" Xiao Qing and the "comedy director" brother-in-law Li Gongfu both contributed a lot of laughter. Chen Jianxi said, "We don't want Xiaobai and Xiaoqing's journey to be boring and depressing. The comedy element is a kind of reconciliation, allowing them to have many beautiful memories." The background of the story is Lin'an in the Song Dynasty, and the overall tone of the film is mainly light and elegant. In order to create Song Yun's elegance , in the early stage of creation, the creative team consulted a large amount of historical materials and went to Hangzhou's West Lake Broken Bridge, Jiuxi Eighteen Streams, Qiantang River, Jinshan Temple and other places to collect scenery and sceneries.
Director Li Jiakai revealed that the film drew on the depiction of the streets of the Song Dynasty in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", and gained a lot from studying and researching "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". Director Chen Jianxi said that in order to recreate the fireworks world thousands of years ago, the stone slabs, plaques, houses, etc. in Hefang Street in the film all refer to the architectural standards of the Song Dynasty. Even the seemingly inconspicuous shops and passers-by on the street have actually been cleverly designed. "We have designed some livelihoods for Xiaobai and Xu Xian's neighbors and people walking around. The shops on the street actually have a certain amount of customer flow." The very clear setting is to let the audience see that this street is alive." Director Li Jiakai said, "We hope that the environment where Xiaobai and Xu Xian live is real."
In addition to the love line between Xiaobai and Xu Xian, the film also has a timeline - connecting the daily lives of the two through traditional festivals such as Lantern Festival, Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival, echoing the concept of "floating life" in the title, which is exactly what it means. As the saying goes, "The most beautiful thing is the fireworks in the world, which accompany the floating life for another year." In this regard, Li Jiakai explained, "We chose to use traditional festivals as time marks, which not only reflects the heritage of traditional culture, but also helps the continuity of the narrative. "
There is room for exploration for characters such as Baoqingfang master
Li Jiakai told reporters that they have also made technical upgrades in aspects such as water, feathers, and light effects this time.
The most difficult scene in the entire film to produce is undoubtedly the small scene. The final battle between Bai, Xu Xian, Xiao Qing and Fa Hai “This scene took a lot of time to test, and the biggest difficulty was the processing of complex special effects, interactions and environments. "Chen Jianxi said that the emotional concentration of this scene is very high, and the characters' emotions need to be conveyed through subtle expressions such as eyes. The team went through many attempts to achieve the final effect.
The film ends with Xiaobai and Xiaoqing looking back at the broken bridge. Chen Jianxi said , there was no plan to make "Water Floods the Golden Mountain" from the beginning, because this is a story that everyone knows, and the predetermined ending is very cruel. The ending that the audience is currently seeing echoes the opening of "White Snake 2: The Green Snake Rises", "We I hope the protagonist ends the story in a positive mood. Looking back, it has appeared at the end of the previous work many times. This feature runs through the end of the film, saying a final farewell to the audience. "
Li Jiakai said that although the story of "The True Story of White Snake" has ended, there is still plenty of room for exploration in the characters such as Baoqingfang Master extended by the "White Snake Series". "The audience can look forward to the subsequent development.”
Red Star News reporter Zhang Shihao intern Li Jinjie editor Zeng Qi
