The young Jigong has the world in his heart, the city of figurines burns
Summer Chinese Manga, digging for gold in traditional culture
Recently, summer animated films have been put on file one after another, including “The City of Warriors and Horses” with the theme of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Qin Dynasty, and “Jigong’s Falling Dragon Comes into the World” which won the visual award before being screened. The sister chapter of “White Snake: Origination”, “White Snake 2: The Green Snake”, which once won 469 million yuan at the box office, is scheduled for July 23 and is currently in theaters. After “Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage” and “Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World“, every summer file has become a must-see for animated films. This summer vacation is no exception. Guoman still draws nutrients from traditional culture and adds elements to it, trying to tell a story that is both traditional and novel.
Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point
Reporter Shi Wenjing
To traditional culture
Want a story
How to reshape the stories of traditional mythological characters, how to bring cultural relics to life, how to awaken the flourishing ages in historical records, and how to show historical stories on the big screen? In the past two years of large-scale animation films, they have tried to innovate in traditional culture, and used traditional elements to create super-buzz.
After Nezha, Monkey King, White Snake, Jiang Ziya and other traditional animation films related to mythological character series have made big hits, traditional IP animation movies and even animation drama series continue to be created. The creators have developed their own ways, displayed their magical powers, opened up their imagination, and gave new perspectives to stories that originated from traditional culture and history. “City of Figurines”, “Jigong’s Falling Dragon” and “White Snake 2: The Tribulation of Green Snake” are all such works.
In “City of Warriors and Horses”, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang became an entry point and source of inspiration. The story is not only the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang, but a universe of “City of Warriors and Horses” was created. In the movie, Qin Shi Huang listened to the words of a mysterious warlock and started to build a dungeon of terracotta warriors and horses for immortality. Later dynasties and generations followed Qin Shi Huang to build the city of warriors and warriors, but the city of warriors has been encountering the sacred beast for thousands of years. Meng Yuan, who was originally a handyman, was striving to be a “sharp man” and fought against the ancient beasts, so that the “wuhun” could be carried forward. The cities of figurines in the film include Qinyang, Hanluo, Tang’an, Songjing, etc. They are all dungeons built in the legendary dynasties. A city of figurines represents a dynasty, and the city style of each dynasty is different.
The film also presents a lot of Chinese cultural elements, such as the figurines of Qinyang City, living bronze beasts, bronze chariots, ancient stele forest guarded by Master Nine Tails, and Nuo masks worn by the heroine, etc., traditional elements Very rich, magnificent and magnificent, and the setting of living bronzes is also full of imagination. But the mixed monster elements are inexplicable. The colorful round monsters are monsters like “Zoo City” and “How to Train Your Dragon”. The heroine’s appearance is more like the characters from “Frozen”. The visual presentation of cultural elements in this animated film is very colorful and beautiful, but it is a pity that it is not a very attractive story.
“Jigong’s Falling Dragon Comes into the World” tells the story of the reincarnation of the dragon descending Arhat and the reincarnation of the child prodigy Li Xiuyuan. It is also a story to grow into “own hero”. Inspired by folk legends, this film certainly focuses on Chinese style pictures and traditional elements. The scenes are ancient and beautiful, and the characters are elegant and flexible. They are consistent with the fairy images in the Dunhuang murals and myths. Many parts of the film present traditional painting styles.
“White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake” takes over the Jinshan Mountain and tells the story of Xiaoqing about to overthrow the Leifeng Pagoda. It is also a story of unwillingness and a strong desire to live. Judging from the trailer, Xiaoqing will go through the four catastrophes of Shura City’s “wind, fire, water, and air”. Shura City switches back and forth in the environment of ancient cities, urban high-rises, and wasteland punk, with cold weapons, mechanical guns and guns all in battle, like It is a new story that is deconstructed and reorganized under the cloak of tradition. The film has the “face” of traditional culture and the “lizi” of modern heroes.
How to speak well
“Juvenile Blood Theme”
The growth theme and spiritual connotation of self-defense presented in “City of Figurines” is very good, but this film did not ignite the public praise like “Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World” because it allows the audience to interpret this theme. Some resonance is missing. Meng Yuan was born as a handyman. He wanted to kill monsters, be a “sharp man”, and change his fate, but the motives of the characters in fighting against fate were not portrayed. In the end, Meng Yuan was given inexplicable superpowers by Master Nine Tails to defeat “Dizhen”. , But also let the story lose the deep core. In the final analysis, this is a story of magical powers helping each other to fight monsters. Compared with Nezha’s fate struggle, Mengyuan’s characters are too superficial, and the story does not have the complicated entanglement of good and evil in “The Devil Boy of Nezha”, and the fighting scenes are even less exciting than the previous work.
“Heaven is a big responsibility for a naughty boy”, Li Xiuyuan wanted to be a hero in order to cure his mother’s illness. He is both lively and active as a young man, but also resolute and unyielding. In order to protect the common people, he has no hesitation. The story of “Jigong: Descent from the Dragon” is a bit more complicated than “The City of Figurines”, which is just fighting monsters. Many people are moved by the Chinese-style father-son relationship in the film. The father didn’t know how to express his love, he didn’t know how to support his son’s ideals. He only hoped to protect his son under his own wings, but it would cause a catastrophe and lead to the Golden Wing Roc. However, this kind of powerful paternal love story that lacks communication and understanding also makes many viewers feel old-fashioned.
“Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World” makes animation combined with traditional cultural elements to have an extremely successful model. Most of the animation films after that are drawn from traditional culture to tell a “growing resistance story.” The above several animated films also have a “juvenile spirit”, which tells a “cultivation story” that bravely resists fate. Meng Yuan wants to resist the fate of “life but labor”, he wants to be a “sharp man”; Jigong wants to be “his own hero”, wants to defeat the golden-winged Dapeng who wants to destroy the world and become a living Buddha; Green Snake wants to resist the city of Shura Rescue his sister. Judging from the reviews of these films, the audience is comparing them with “Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World“, “Only I can define who I am”, “My life depends on me” and the passionate growth theme No problem, but how to tell the story well is the problem. There must be a theme, a purpose, and storytelling skills and logic. The most important thing is to be able to conform to the concepts of contemporary young people.
Big production
Can you boost the high box office?
“Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World” smashed the box office of more than 5 billion yuan, which increased the confidence of audiences and capital in domestic animation. Since then, “Jiang Ziya” has also received more than 1.6 billion yuan in box office, and animation movies with traditional cultural elements continue to be favored. But the box office of “Jigong: Descent of the Dragon” and “City of Figurines”, which took the lead this summer, was not ideal. “City of Figurines” was screened for 13 days at a box office of more than 60 million yuan, and “Jigong’s Falling Dragon Comes to the World” was released for 6 days with a box office of more than 30 million yuan. Next, let’s see how the box office of domestic animation films such as “White Snake 2: The Green Snake Rise” and “Out of the Earth” is going to be.
Some critics believe that the reason why the box office of “City of Figurines” is low is because the animation movies have not formed a continuous effect in the past two years. This year, the summer animation movies have once again become a weak type. As the first animated film in the summer vacation, the film had already finished its hot fermentation before it was released. The film’s thousands of screenings achieved the highest attendance rate. However, in the summer film market this year, commercial blockbusters have gathered, and animated films have not been able to get too many. Space, it is difficult to attract attention among the audience.
The schedule will affect the box office of an animated movie, but the content of the movie is the more obvious main factor. According to statistics, in the animation film filings from 2015 to 2020, there are 119 mythological stories, 24 movies are about Monkey King, 11 movies are about Nezha, 8 movies are focused on Erlang, and there are movies that tell the story of Bai Suzhen. Five. The domestic animation film market is expanding and the audience is increasing, but the biggest problem with the national comics is the single subject matter, and even the single type of story. Films seek outbursts in traditional culture, but it is difficult to avoid the problem of homogeneity.
In fact, Chinese traditional cultural factors are not the patent of Guoman. The story of the summer co-production film “Save the Donuts: Time and Space Rescue” deeply cultivates the soil of Chinese culture. It not only shows Chinese historical allusions such as Zheng He’s voyages to the West and Emperor Qianlong’s ascension to the throne, but also Taking modern Shanghai as the starting point for the time and space shuttle of the protagonist “Doughnuts” brothers and sisters, vividly demonstrated the prosperity and unique style of modern Shanghai. The full use of Chinese elements makes the movie an animated movie with a real “Chinese flavor”.
Although Chinese myths and legends have a huge audience base, if animation films are all telling a story of “juvenile disobedience”, it will inevitably make the audience fatigued. Animated films have a large investment and a long production cycle, and they all hope to make a good box office in the summer, but if the themes get together, they will inevitably not be able to make a big hit.
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