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Following "White Snake: Origin" in 2019 and "White Snake 2: Rise of the Green Snake" in 2021, the third film in the "White Snake" series produced by Light Chaser Animation, "White Snake: Floating Life", finally met with the audience on the Chinese Valentine's Day. After the attempts and explorations of the first two films, this new work is more mature and complete in form and text, demonstrating the breakthrough and leap of domestic animated films in recent years. As of August 12, the cumulative box office of the film has reached 175 million yuan.

From the perspective of audio-visual effects, "White Snake: Floating Life" has reached the pinnacle of domestic animated films. Whether it is the early art design or the post-production visual effects, the completion is quite high, surpassing the representative domestic animated films "Journey to the West: Hero is Back" and "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" in recent years. "White Snake: Floating Life" sets the story background in the Southern Song Dynasty, draws inspiration and materials from materials such as "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", and perfectly restores the Hangzhou of "Three Autumn Osmanthus and Ten Miles of Lotus" in Liu Yong's "Looking at the Sea Tide". The beautiful scenery of West Lake, the restaurants, the streets and alleys, and the daily life of the market are both vivid and full of details. It is really "Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times"! The ancient charm shown in the film presents an exquisite visual feast for the audience. Even if you don't watch the plot, it is very enjoyable to quietly appreciate the pictures, making people want to travel through the movie. The Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, which appears at the end of the film, is solemn and majestic, and it is the first time that the style of the thousand-year-old treasure temple is presented in animation.

Comparing the images of the "White Snake" trilogy vertically, we can also see the great progress of "White Snake: Floating Life" compared with the first two. Limited by cost, production level and time, the visual effects of many animated films are often maintained well at the beginning of the film, but become rougher and rougher as time goes on. When it comes to the climax of the story, the picture quality is "broken" and the details are not rendered in place, resulting in a fight like in a coal mine. But this time, the picture of "White Snake: Floating Life" has maintained a high level from beginning to end, without a tiger's head and a snake's tail. In terms of picture details, the film also presents a carefully polished effect. Just by comparing the giant snake form of Xiaobai in "White Snake: Origin" and "White Snake: Floating Life", it can be seen that whether it is modeling or texture, static or dynamic, "White Snake: Floating Life" is much higher than the first one, which can be called a qualitative leap. For example, the material of the characters' clothing in the film is handled very finely, and the fabric texture and embroidery stitches can be clearly seen. The costumes change realistically when the characters move. In one scene, Fahai's robes are soaked by water, and the colors and textures change very subtly and delicately. In short, "White Snake: Floating Life" is worth appreciating carefully.

As a film based on classic Chinese folk tales, the film showcases the excellent traditional Chinese culture. The film uses traditional Chinese solar terms and festivals as a timeline to string together the entire story. The Lantern Festival begins with Xiaobai and Xuxian meeting on the Broken Bridge. Important plots occur during the Cold Food Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Double Ninth Festival, with ups and downs until the Lantern Festival of the next year, when the story comes to an end. The presentation of solar terms and festivals is not far-fetched, but is placed in the life scenes and plot development, making people feel both natural and interesting. The film also combines these time points to show various ancient customs, such as the hairpin flower style when Bai and Xu got married, dragon boat racing on the Dragon Boat Festival, drinking realgar wine, and catching the tide in the Qiantang River.

The scene in which Baoqingfang sings "The West Chamber" is a highlight of the film. In terms of narrative, this scene combines the two classic texts "White Snake" and "The West Chamber" in the form of a play within a play, and uses the mouth of the owner of Baoqingfang to express the huge obstacles that the identity of the White Snake as a snake demon brings to the love between Bai and Xu. In terms of the screen, the stage installation during the performance is exquisitely designed, and it flips to change into different scenes, which is extremely ornamental, and the creativity and presentation are amazing.

The film has made some innovations in some of the main characters, and has added a lot of comedy elements just right to adjust the rhythm of the whole film and enhance the fun. Li Gongfu, the brother-in-law of Xu Xian, is portrayed in the film as both likable and humane. Because of his deep love for his deceased wife, he regards his wife's brother Xu Xian as his family, and "loves the whole house and the whole family" to Xiaobai and Xiaoqing. His interaction with them is cordial and daily, such as calling Xiaoqing "brother and sister", and enthusiastically helping Xiaoqing introduce a date, which leads to a short encounter between Xiaoqing and Fahai with sparks. The crane boy in the "stealing fairy grass" plot is portrayed as a naive crosstalk actor, with a funny and flattering, and the lines of sarcastic comments are extraordinary. Fahai's mythical beast, the golden-haired 犼, is sometimes powerful and sometimes turns around to be cute, which is an indispensable cute pet image in animated films.

Unlike the previous two films, which boldly subverted the characters and interpreted the legend in a new way, "White Snake: Floating Life" is relatively conventional in terms of text, basically following the most familiar story of the White Snake. Classic scenes such as the first meeting on the Broken Bridge, Xiaoqing stealing official silver, eliminating the plague, realgar revealing its true form, and stealing the fairy grass are reproduced one by one. Although there is no innovation, it is also a safe approach suitable for all ages. When "rejecting love brain" became a hot trend on social networking sites, the film's interpretation of the love between the White Snake and Xu Xian returned to the classics. The relationship between the two transcends race. Not only is it faithful, but each of them is brave enough to give everything for each other, even their lives. This pure and strong love is touching. However, the film gave the ending highlight to Xu Xian, which seems a bit strange. Because no matter which version of the legend, the White Snake is always the soul of the whole story, but in this one she takes a back seat and becomes the heroine saved by a man. Logically, Xu Xian's motives also lack foreshadowing. He was almost scared to death because Xiaobai revealed his true form not long ago, but he immediately accepted that his wife was a snake demon. The character change was a bit abrupt.

At the end of the film, Xu Xian, who was dying to save the White Snake, was taken away by Fahai, and the White Snake gave birth to his and Xu Xian's child. The most magnificent "flooding Jinshan" in the whole story has not yet been staged. It seems that this series is preparing for a fourth part, in which Xu Shilin saves his mother. Judging from the wonderfulness of "White Snake: Floating Life", the next part is already impatient.

Source: Beijing Daily Client

Reporter: Yuan Yuner