Film Name: 白蛇2：青蛇劫起 / Green Snake
A few days ago, I rewatched White Snake and thought about why I liked it, and I think it’s mainly because of the beautiful graphics, the adult-oriented kernel and expression, and the condensed and compact story.
For Green Snake, which I’ve been longing for, I didn’t ask for much, “just don’t be too much worse than the first one.”…… Fortunately, the overall quality of the movie exceeded my expectations, and it’s a new, more mature work.
Green Snake, like the debut White Snake, is just borrowing a shell of The White Snake to write its own story, the difference being that White Snake is a prequel with a definite drop-off point at the end, whereas Green Snake is a newly-written outtake, which is much more demanding and much harder to pull off well.
To be fair, the plot of Green Snake has its good and bad points (not good enough for me to brag about it), but it has made great progress in terms of screen action, characterization, story thrust, and presentation techniques, etc. In the end, the unwavering bond between Green and White that transcends gender, identity, and reincarnation is very atmospheric, and it’s no exaggeration to call it a breakthrough work for Chasing Light Animation.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below].
I have always believed that “animation” is by far the most popular form of artistic expression that can unleash the human imagination and desire for expression. Therefore, whenever I comment on animation works, especially my favorite animation, I will always talk about the “hardware” level of the drawing style, design, and movement first – don’t always separate form and content, at least in animation. Therefore, whenever I review an animation, especially my favorites, I will always talk about the “hardware” of the style, design, movement, etc. – don’t always separate the form from the content, at least in animation, the form is the content.
This time, Green Snake has come up with a new style: a space-traveling urban wasteland punk fantasy.
Apart from the ancient fantasy of the two white and green snakes fighting Fa Hai in the opening scene and the modern scene at the end, the main part of the movie takes place outside the three realms in the city of Shura, a city that runs through the past and present, absorbing dying people of all dynasties with strong obsessions, and where the four major havocs of wind, fire, water, and air continue to harvest the survivors of the weak and the strong. ……
I really appreciate the setting of Shura City, especially its conceptual image of a snake that “rises and falls, breathes in and out”, which is very vivid and subtle when combined with the annihilation and rebirths that occur in the city at any time and any place. The people, demons and ghosts in the city are trying their best to implement the law of the jungle by using modern technological products and physical skills of different dynasties and races without any magic power.
The fluidity of the movie’s subplot and action has been significantly improved (they all know how to play with long shots), and except for a few characters who have a sketchy feel in individual scenes, there are almost no graphic lags or flaws to be found in Green Snake, so it’s safe to say that Chasing Light Animation has utilized its technological strengths to the best of its ability.
On this basis, the film also has a lot of eye-catching breakthroughs, I am most impressed when the green in the black wind cave and Fa Hai’s “twenty years of fighting”, similar style is not unseen, but to do the actual degree of detail in the film, only “Green Snake” unique.
The basis of this scene is the traditional Chinese ink painting style, characters, gods, spells, the environment and other figurative/abstract things on the rendering techniques with the dyeing method, the way it is shown is a real 3D, and accompanied by bokeh and other effects …… on the big screen, just based on this section will be worth the price of the ticket.
In addition, the crew is also well versed in “clear West Lake as rain West Lake, rain West Lake as snow West Lake”, the end of the arrangement of the small green to the modern snow West Lake to find destiny, the scenery, together with the green and white snake friendship, a little bit of pick up can be done in Hangzhou tourism promo …… this film! Really can let the audience “eye-opening”.
The following focuses on the plot and theme of the part that more people value.
First of all, it must be admitted, chase light animation is still committing their own old mistakes: story is weak, narrative mechanical. If the narrative is compared to the execution of the code, then the reputable good story is the code is concise and clear, all in one go, the program runs fast and smooth, but this kind of source code level text is often unavailable …… Green Snake belongs to the kind of code spliced together a few large pieces of code, each piece of code is useful, the program can also run! The program can run, but it is inevitably bloated and inefficient, and can only be optimized by constant patching.
Specifically, the components of Shura City, Green Snake, and the quest line are still a bit incompatible, and there are several times during which the story almost ran out of steam, and it’s also slightly lengthy, which is still quite a distance away from the good story that the audience generally recognizes – of course, this time, Green Snake has already optimized it very well, and it can be seen that many debugging and adjustments were made. Green Snake has been optimized very well this time around, with many tweaks and adjustments.
Once you recognize and accept this, the rest of the film is quite impressive. Personally, I highly recommend the characterization and portrayal in the film, which is individualistic and vivid enough, and should be one of the most prominent highlights.
For example, the Rakshasa gang leader Sima official, strong enough, ruthless and merciless, but he did not exude much evil, not only because he is following the laws of the city of Xuluo, but also because he has always tried to play their own strong to radiate around, his negative factors are due to the deep obsession, and when he is determined to go “if the bridge”, he has become When he decides to go to the “If Bridge”, he becomes an upright and unrestrained man.
As for the positioning and growth of the protagonist Qing, it is more detailed and rich.
The cornerstone of Xiaoqing’s persona is “Xiaobai’s good sister”, love is more than gold, never give up, pure, fiery, leaving no room for error, but behind these words also often means thin and simple.
Green Snake”, did the protagonist of the small green, just with a wisp of the strong obsession of Xiaobai to go to the city of Xiuluo, in addition to nothing …… The biggest difficulty of the film is how to make this simple obsession to make an effective extension, and the narrative is layered enough.
For a long time, the obsession is a drag on Xiao Qing, when she first entered the city of Xiu Luo, she could not even call her rescuer a sister Sun, and could only change her name to Miss Sun, which shows that the weight of the “sister” in her heart is enough to make it difficult for her to walk. ……
There are two ways to get rid of the obsession and leave Xiu Luo City, either jumping into the pool of no pool to wash away the memories and completely cut off the past, or going to break into the Black Wind Cave to overcome her own obsession in the challenge of the underworld, and then cross the if bridge – Xiao Qing definitely can’t let go of her obsession with Xiaobai, so she only has one way to go.
The challenge of survival in the city of Xuluo is the accumulation of quantitative changes, and in this process, what Xiaoqing has done is a change in approach: she has seen the powerlessness of Xu Xian’s “weakness”, and coupled with the brutal environment of the city of Xuluo, she tries to get closer to the “powerful” forces, from the octopus strongholds and the Sun She tried to get close to the “powerful” forces, from the small stronghold of octopus and Sun Girl to the Rakshasa Gang’s dependence on Officer Sima.
But with the drastic changes in the Wan Yi Supermarket, Xiaoqing realized that “strong and weak will betray, are not as strong as themselves”…… However, this knowledge is only a methodological awareness, and did not touch the root of Xiaoqing’s obsession.
It is not until she defeats Fa Hai in the illusion of the Black Wind Cave, and until she bandages the masked man with the ribbon symbolizing her obsession, that she defeats her obsession in a practical sense: if she wants to save others, she must first save herself, and not manipulate herself by her obsession, but control herself.
By this point, Green’s simple obsession extends into a rich layering and is no longer monotonous – all of these valuable transformations could not have been achieved without the Masked Man, a character whose origins further sublimate the themes of Green Snake’s story.
The identity of the masked man is an important suspense in the film, in the eyes of Qing, he has been a strange rescuer – the reincarnation of Xiaobai – a spy of the Ox-Head Gang – a true partner and so on several phases, Qing’s attitude towards him, also with the identity of its ups and downs.
In fact, when the Masked Man sacrificed himself to send Xiao Qing away, I truly felt that I would accept him even if he was a new character with no further origins: the feelings he shared with Xiao Qing were real, the dedication was genuine, and at the same time, Xiao Qing couldn’t leave because of the Masked Man, completing the reincarnation of the Creation and the new bond…but when it was revealed that the Masked Man was really the reincarnation of Xiao Bai, the story’s intertextuality and thematicity does get stronger.
There are pros and cons to this setup: the cons are that it blocks the emotions that should have been there for a long time, and it’s also a bit far-fetched that Xiaobai has been reincarnated multiple times harboring an obsession with Xiaoqing, and that he didn’t enter the city of Xiuluo until he was a modern-day young man after having lived as a maiden and crone; the pros are that it explains why the Masked Man can’t remember the obsession, and that the instantaneous emotional outbursts that come from the bouncing encounters of Xiaobai and Xiaoqing have also made the two people’s emotional connection much more intense and unified.
Even better, the existence of the masked man makes Green Snake largely de-sexualized, and saying things like “men are useless”, “sisterhood is the greatest”, “sex change is disgusting”, and so on would seem like a pattern. The movie uses the story of Xiaobai and Xiaoqing to prove the core meaning of sincerity, as if the masked man said, “It’s not important what you call yourself, it’s just a name”, gender, identity, and era are secondary, the most important thing is “that person”. The most important thing is the person himself.
This is in the same vein as White Snake’s final drop, “No matter where he is in the world, no matter what he looks like, no matter if he remembers me or not, I’m going to find him because, I remember.” –Small White can go searching for Xu Xuan because of this quote, and Green and Small White can keep finding each other because of the same philosophy.
But then again, the movie does have a narrative ceiling, it can at best only tell you a beautiful story to aspire to, but can’t let the majority of the audience resonate (lack of empathy base), the pattern of intention is big, but the heart is scattered, which is probably “Green Snake” a few less than “White Snake” place.
Finally, let’s talk briefly about Chasing Light Animation’s “business principle”, that is, to build their own IP brand step by step, in this regard, their steps are more stable than the next colorful house.
To be more specific, I’m talking about the supporting character “nine-tailed fox” Aobo Master, who has made a name for himself in everything from White Snake to Green Snake.
Collecting essence in the Green Treasure Workshop on earth and obsession in the Wan Yi Supermarket in Xiu Luo City …… Little Fox is a businesswoman with wild ways and great skills, and in the colorful parts of both movies, she makes deals with the great demon at the bottom of the West Lake without affecting the main line of the movie… …She’s not infallible, and she has her own obsessions.
Chasing the light of the animation can be said to go on the road wider and wider, in addition to the “new God list” series, the fox can continue in the “White Snake” series in the slow development, but also can find an opportunity to stand alone out of their own line, if there is a day, I believe that the audience will buy the account.
Today’s article is a bit long, ultimately, or because I can not let go of animation (especially domestic animation) love, it is not easy to have a good standard of the film, always want to yell a few more for it.
Please also go to the theater and support one if you can, because, well, it’s worth it.
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