"This is the 'Legend of the White Snake' that belongs to this era!" On July 30, the Shanghai-produced movie "White Snake: The Floating Life " held its "A Thousand Years of Waiting" world premiere ceremony at Impression West Lake in Hangzhou, and received high praise from the audience. It also attracted a lot of attention online. The film will be released nationwide at 13:14 on August 10. With the innovative power of Chinese animation, the legend of the White Snake that has been passed down for thousands of years has a new era of romantic narration, spreading the beauty of traditional culture to young people. This is an important work launched by Shanghai Chaiguang Film Co., Ltd. after last year's " Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles " to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese culture.
"White Snake: The Floating Life"
In recent years, Shanghai has adhered to the people-centered creative orientation and launched a series of major works, major productions, and major IPs that meet the people's cultural needs and enhance the people's spiritual strength. Many outstanding Shanghai products Movies dominate the big screen during popular periods, bringing innovative breakthroughs in terms of subject matter, genre, aesthetics, and production, and boosting the prosperity and development of the Chinese film market.
Brings the Song Dynasty's urban landscape back to life
"White Snake: The Floating Life" is the third work in the "New Legend" series of light-chasing animations. The story of the film follows "White Snake: The Origin".
are both produced by "Chasing Light". Last year's animated film "Chang'an 30,000 Miles" showed the intensity and unrestrainedness of the Tang Dynasty; and "White Snake: The Floating Life", which is set in the Song Dynasty, whether in terms of aesthetic presentation or story aesthetic, All strive to show the elegance of Song Dynasty. "In comparison, the colors of "White Snake: The Origin" are more intense, full and overflowing, which is in line with the temperament of the Tang Dynasty; the story of "White Snake: The Floating Life" is set in the Song Dynasty, so we lowered the colors to be more elegant and Broken Bridge and many life scenes are presented in elegant colors," director Li Jiakai said in an interview with a reporter from Liberation Daily and Shangguan News.
"White Snake: The Floating Life"
"White Snake: The Floating Life"
Animated movies usually pay more attention to spectacle narratives. When creating "White Snake: The Floating Life", the main creator was very restrained. Li Jiakai said, "The advantage of animation is its unbridled imagination, but this time we decided to compress the special effects and big scenes. I have been doing animation for 10 years, and I want to try some new animation expressions to tell everyone about fragments of life, Small but wonderful feeling. "
From the perspective of the presentation of animated movies, it focuses more on the depiction of urban life in the Song Dynasty. The film uses traditional Chinese festivals as a guide to narrate the folk customs of the Song Dynasty starting from the Lantern Festival, and then connects the experiences of the two protagonists Xiaobai and Xu Xian within one year, including the encounter on a broken bridge, the White Snake stealing fairy grass, Fa Hai and the White Snake. Classic plots of folklore such as fighting skills are all presented in animated movies.
"White Snake: The Floating Life"
"White Snake: The Floating Life"
In Li Jiakai's view, the narrative is based on the distribution of festivals, because festivals are the muscle memory of every Chinese person and contain many traditional cultural customs. "We made a lot of reference to "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", which is a reflection of urban life in the Song Dynasty. We made reference to the status of the characters, their livelihoods, their occupations, the types of shops, etc. When creating, we imagined a 'day in the life of Xiaobai'. She Where to buy breakfast and what stalls you will encounter along the way, you can express the home, living environment, and neighborhood of Xiaobai and Xu Xian more vividly. "
" The story of "White Snake: The Floating Life" begins with the Lantern Festival and ends with the Lantern Festival. "Xiao Bai and Xu Xian have experienced a lot in one year." In the words of director Chen Jianxi, as an intermediate story, the biggest challenge of this film is how to ensure the integrity of the story. , the way of expression should be related to the previous one."
At the premiere ceremony of "White Snake: A Floating Life", "The Legend of White Snake" starring Zhao Yazhi and Ye Tong, and the singers of the film's theme song "Floating Life", Chen Haoyu and Chen Lijun, appeared.
In 1992, The TV series "The Legend of White Snake" starring Zhao Yazhi and Ye Tong is a common memory of the "post-80s" generation.After more than 30 years, the folk legend of the White Snake is brought to the screen again. Li Jiakai hopes to tell young audiences a "White Snake story that is more in line with current values."
From "White Snake: The Origin" in 2019 to "White Snake: The Floating Life" in 2024, Li Jiakai feels that the advancement of animated film production technology can be clearly felt in the past five years. "Although Xiaobai's image has not changed at all, when I see her again on the big screen, I can feel that the texture and details on the skin are more than before, and even the hair is thinner than before. We are very interested in water, hair, and light effects. We made a lot of upgrades, so we dared to make the golden hair bigger in the final battle. This meant that we had to deal with a lot of hair, and the technical upgrades gave us the confidence.”
《White Snake: Floating Life》
《White Snake: Floating Life》
Li Jiakai is a fan of the White Snake animated film series. "I was very inspired after watching "White Snake: The Origin". I directly submitted my resume and joined Chasing the Light, and participated in "White Snake 2: The Green Snake Robbed ", "Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles" and " New God List: Yang Jian" production, until this time he became the director of "White Snake: The Floating Life". "In his opinion, going from a fan to a director is a transformation from a listener to a narrator, which is stressful but more passionate.
's diverse innovations complement Chinese films.
The movie "White Snake: The Floating Life" is produced by Shanghai Zhuiguang Pictures Co., Ltd., and many industry insiders are optimistic that it will continue to work hard in the second half of the summer season to sustain the popularity of the film market. Yu Zhou, president of Light Chasing Animation and producer of "White Snake: The Floating Life" said, "Light Chasing Animation is committed to exploring how to better present Chinese traditional culture with domestic animation. 'New Legend' is listed alongside 'New God List' and 'New Culture' Among the three major series of light-chasing animations, we hope that through "White Snake: The Floating Life", the audience can see the charm of Chinese romantic legends."
"Chang'an 30,000 Miles"
"Chang'an 30,000 Miles", the first produced by Shanghai Zhuiguang Film Co., Ltd., is the beginning of the "New Culture" series. The film was released on July 8, 2023 and earned 1.824 billion Yuan box office performance, becoming the second highest box office in the history of Chinese animated films. Through the legendary stories of well-known poets such as Gao Shi and Li Bai, the film not only ignited the "Tang poetry craze" among audiences across the country, but also significantly boosted cultural and tourism consumption. The film embodies the localization and originality of Chinese animated films in recent years, especially the great progress in the aesthetic consciousness of Chinese animation and the aesthetic quality of Chinese films. It continues the Chinese context in continuous exploration and innovation and shows the new era. cultural confidence and national pride.
《Under the Stranger 》
Shanghai is home to the Shanghai Art Film Studio, the founder and practitioner of the Chinese animation school. It is also the "two-dimensional holy land" in the eyes of animation fans today and has a strong animation gene. The fantasy action film "Under the Stranger", produced by Shanghai Yuewen Film and Television Culture Communication Co., Ltd., is an innovative "comic-adapted movie" and has been released in theaters on July 26. The film is directed by Wu Ershan and is adapted from the popular Chinese comic "Under One Person" on Tencent platform. It brings the trend of "national style and extraordinary power" to the summer season, and many viewers lamented that "this is an unprecedented audio-visual feast." Comic-book movies are a mainstream genre in the global film industry, but they are still rare in China. "Under the Stranger" innovatively expresses traditional culture and fills the gap in this genre of Chinese movies.
The movie "Decryption" is a dream amusement park
"Under the Stranger" brings comics into reality. The movie "Decryption", the first film produced by Shanghai Chinese Pictures Co., Ltd., incorporates unconstrained imagination into realism creation, and Ten dreams connect the entire film. The film is adapted from the Mai family's novel of the same name. It tells the story of Rong Jinzhen, a mathematically gifted but lonely and fragile person who burns her life for the cause of code-breaking. The entire process was specially shot by IMAX and will be released nationwide on August 3. "Decryption" is Chen Sicheng's new exploration based on the ten-year point of his director's career. It brings together top behind-the-scenes teams such as director of photography Cao Yu and art director Han Zhong. The shocking and unique audio-visual language has made many Shanghai film critics who "decrypted" the film in advance feel... surprise.Scholars believe that "Decryption" tells a red story in a brand-new genre, while promoting the spirit of patriotism and fostering feelings about the country and the country, while fully utilizing the audio-visual charm of the film. They believe it will be a commercial blockbuster that ordinary people will love to watch.
"Ten Thousand Miles Home"
Many realistic creations produced in Shanghai also make diversified breakthroughs in subject matter and expression, allowing the audience to see new ideas. " Thousand Miles Home ", produced by Shanghai Huace Film Co., Ltd., will be released on September 30, 2022. As a reality-themed film created to welcome the victory of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the film has broken through previous similar-themed works. The creative bottleneck lies in vividly embodying the people-centered value background.
"Life Events", produced by Lianrui (Shanghai) Pictures Co., Ltd., will be released on June 24, 2022. It tells the emotional growth story of little people with a warm realism creative style. The film uses the theme of funerals, which is rare in Chinese movies, as an entry point to guide the audience to face the ultimate proposition of life with a positive and open-minded attitude. It impresses a large number of audiences with its unique theme and profound emotions. Its excellent box office performance made the film a top choice in the film market that year. important force in recovery.
"Retrograde Life"
The film "Retrograde Life" produced by Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television Production Co., Ltd. will be released nationwide on August 9. The film is directed by Xu Zheng and stars Xu Zheng and Xin Zhilei. It tells the story of middle-aged Gao Zhilei The story of becoming a delivery boy by chance, switching tracks and starting anew. The movie not only focuses on the group of delivery workers, but also shows the various life styles of ordinary people who work hard to live. The film's creator said that "Retrograde Life" will be dedicated to "every one of us who works hard for life." I believe that after the film is released, it will arouse empathy and resonance among the audience.