Summary
Chinese folklore meets lovingly crafted animation as this gorgeous feature gets a chance to find an global audience and charm us thoroughly.
Chinese animated film BIG FISH AND BEGONIA has been a long time in the making. Starting life as a flash animated short in 2004 from directors Liang Xuan and Zhang Chun, the feature went on to make over $85 million at its native box office in 2016. Now that it’s finally getting a US and UK release, the rest of the west gets to be wowed by the blend of traditional folklore and stunning animation that’s on par with anything coming out of the US or Japan.
A floating journey through various pieces of Chinese mythology, the main part of the story is set in a world just beyond the reach of the human realm. When Chun (voiced by Ji Guanlin) turns sixteen, she is sent to explore the human world in the form of a dolphin. However, when a human boy rescues her at the cost of his own life, she makes a bargain to restore his life at the cost of some of her own. From that point, she must protect his soul as it grows from a tiny fish named Kun into a much bigger one fed on complex emotions.
Liang Xuan and Zhang Chun’s film is not always an easy one to access, with a storyline that doesn’t necessarily provide an easy access point for outsiders. In fact, it isn’t obvious until the film’s coda that Chun and companion Qiu (Su Shangqing) are integral to the creation story of China’s seasons. Still, there’s a dream-logic to the structure that allows the uninitiated to just go with it, and each moment at least conveys its importance.
Yet from the start there’s an undeniable comparison to the magic of Japan’s Studio Ghibli. Charming designs, especially on small children and anthropomorphic critters, are worthy of Miyazaki himself. The blend of Chinese design and modern storytelling feels like a narrative that parallels Spirited Away or Ponyo in some ways. However, this never apes Ghibli, or any other film, beating with a pulse that is entirely its own.
The traditional hand-drawn animation is simply stunning. Whales fly into the sunset, floods crash against valleys, and vistas are illuminated by carefully orchestrated lighting. CG is used sparingly, save for a few epic sweeps of statues or other feature objects. Given that the west has largely experienced Chinese animation through cheaper TV shows, and China itself has been dominated by Monkey King and Boonie Bears cartoons for the last decade, this is a quantum leap on all counts.
Watching a behind the scenes video on history of the project, it’s evident that this quality was only possible due to the passion of everyone involved. Indeed, friends and crowd-funders invested significant amounts of their own salaries just to see this come to fruition. Many have already commented that BIG FISH AND BEGONIA might change the way you think about Chinese animation, but that might also be a somewhat reductive statement. This is a award-worthy piece that is finally being given a chance to find an international audience, and we suspect that it won’t be the last time we hear from Xuan Liang and Chun Zhang.
2016 | China | DIRECTOR: Xuan Liang and Chun Zhang | WRITERS: Xuan Liang | CAST: Guanlin Ji, Shangqing Su, Weizhou Xu | DISTRIBUTOR: Shout! Studios and Funimation Films (US) | RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 6 April 2018 (US Limited), 11 April 2018 (US Wide), 18 April 2018 (UK)
