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Qixi Festival,White Snake: A Floating Life》 was released and won the daily box office championship with 94.25 million on the day.

Different from the wild and imaginative first "prequel", "Floating Life" tells the "main story" and is quite bland.It is not difficult to understand. This film is based on the well-knownThe traditional story template of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" has many versions, whether it is live-action TV series or animation. Because the story content is familiar to the audience, there is limited room for adaptation, so it has become mediocre.

Wang Wei, CEO of Light Chaser Animation, who goes by the pseudonym "Da Mao", is still the screenwriter. The script is confined to the traditional story and is more like a running account. The Broken Bridge Meeting, the Fight with the Rat Demon, the Stealing of the Immortal Grass, and the Battle with Fahai are all from the folklore of "The Legend of the White Snake". It follows tradition too much and the overall story seems to be lacking in innovation and emotional ups and downs.

Honestly, this is an animated film that should not have been made. The first part, "Origin", is about the White Snake's past life, and the second part is about Xiaoqing's solo story after the flooding of Jinshan Mountain. The "main story" is too popular to be changed on the one hand, and on the other hand, it cannot be changed randomly. It is a good strategy to ignore it or develop a popular solo movie of Baoqingfangzhu.

But for Wang Wei, perhaps he had to explain. Because "White Snake" not only saved Xu Xian in the film, but also "saved" his company five years ago - relying on "White Snake: Origin”, Light Chaser Animation was revived. Therefore, knowing that there is a tiger in the mountain, Wang Wei is bound to give White Snake a "true story" and challenge the classic.

Starting with "White Snake: Origin", Light Chaser Animation has been on a rollBureau, 2023Chang'an 30,000 Miles》 became a huge hit and won the Japanese box office in nine days. As for Floating Life, although the film was mediocre, it won the box office on the first day of its release.dayCrown (it may be one of the few domestic animations that has received this treatment. Of course, an important reason is that the summer season this year is not strong). This means that Light Chaser's animation works have become "hard currency". Just like Pixar, some audiences "brainlessly" accept it. They will go to see all its works - no matter whether they are good or bad.

So, 11 years after its establishment, Light Chaser Animation has finally realized its dream of becoming a Chinese version of "Pixar"?

-1-

Compared to the "loyalty and righteousness" of White Snake and Xu Xian, the beginning of Light Chasing Animation actually began with a "heartless and unrighteous" story.

In August 2007, two years after founding Tudou, China’s first video website, Wang Wei and ShanghaiNew uncle》 program host Yang Lei and got married in a flash. This seemingly talented and beautiful combination did not last long. After only one year, the two of them were not in harmony.

Yang Lei attributed the reason to: "He loves all beautiful things, but after conquering them, he will continue to look for them..." The implication is that he cheated. It is said that Wang Wei had an affair with a ballet dancer who had appeared on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala stage, but this has never been confirmed.

The divorce lawsuit lasted for more than a year. In March 2010, the two finally parted ways. The then entrepreneurial star only agreed to give Yang Lei 100,000 yuan in compensation. This ruthless and heartless decision also laid the foundation for the subsequent "listing disaster".

Why is he so stingy with his ex-wife? Wang Wei’s reason sounds irrefutable: the company is making huge losses, I am actually a negative asset, I have no money!

Eight months later, Tudou submitted an IPO application ahead of its competitor Youku, intending to become China's first listed video website.

The next day, Yang Lei suddenly launched a "sniper attack", claiming that she should have half of Wang Wei's shares in Tudou.com, and applied for the court to freeze them. This move was precise and effective, and there was probably a master behind it: she wanted to teach her ex-husband a lesson in life.

CourtsIt fully supported Yang Lei's request and ordered the freezing of Tudou shares held by Wang Wei.The gears of fate began to turn.

Due to the dispute and the freezing of shares, Tudou had to withdraw its prospectus, making a quick listing impossible. Wang Wei watched Youku go public in December 2010, making this "latecomer" the first video concept stock in China.

The issue was finally resolved when Wang Wei compensated the woman with $7 million (doubtful) in exchange for Yang Lei's relinquishing her equity. This amount was 500 times the original compensation, and it also cost Tudou.com the fate of becoming China's No. 1 video website. The price was truly tragic.

In the ever-changing competitive landscape, Wang Wei lost his first-mover advantage. Youku became the first Chinese video website to go public in December 2010, ahead of Tudou. In August of the following year, Tudou went public on NASDAQ, but the stock price fell below the issue price at the opening, which was called a "bloody listing." Behind the bloody listing was Wang Wei's helpless choice - the video website burned too much money and the cash flow was extremely tight.

We all know how it ended up - in March 2012, Youku swallowed up the bleeding Tudou, becoming the largest merger and acquisition case in the Internet sector that year.

secondYearIn March, Wang Wei left Youku Group sadly and founded Light Chaser Animation.

In a sense, viewers who like the Light Chasing animation works should thank Yang Lei. If she hadn't taken action, Tudou.com would not have failed in its first attempt to go public, and there would not have been a series of stories about Wang Wei leaving Tudou and founding Light Chasing. If Yang Lei hadn't proposed a share split during Tudou's first attempt to go public, the subsequent streaming media landscape of "Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video" would probably have become "Tudou, iQiyi and Tencent Video".

Ultimately, the source of the butterfly effect is that Wang Wei gave Yang Lei too little compensation.

So, this story tells us:

Be generous to women.

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When he was young, Wang Wei was a typical literary youth. He liked to doodle, rehearse plays, choreograph ballets, and wrote a novel, which was published in the literary magazine "Harvest". The novel was titled "Waiting for Summer" and was published as a single volume in 2009.

Wang Wei's job is also related to literature. He used to be the president of Bertelsmann Online China. The main business of this Fortune 500 company is media publishing, and it owns the famous Random House.

"Knowing yourself is the most difficult thing." Wang Wei once said, of course, he knows who he is.

Even if you start a business, you must be the most artistic one.

In March 2005, in a bar on Hengshan Road in Shanghai, Wang Wei set the slogan for his entrepreneurial project: "Everyone is the director of his life" - perhaps, at that time he had the dream of becoming a director.

When Tudou.com was launched, Wang Wei had no idea what it was like. No one had done it before, and there was nothing he could copy. But his dream was to “let everyone’s work be published, and to subvert the TV industry.” When he was soliciting investments, “most people thought this idea was a fantasy, and it was simply too ridiculous.”

This ridiculous thing made Wang Wei see the future. In April 2005, Tudou.com was officially launched. In the early stage, he used his own money. In October of that year, he received the first round of financing, $500,000.

This ushered in the video era of China's Internet.

Therefore, Wang Wei's literary temperament has also influenced his future film career. Even though "30,000 Miles of Chang'an" was a big hit at the box office and in the public opinion, the smoothness of the story was still criticized. As some netizens said: the old problem of light chasing, the story is not well told. "White Snake: Floating Life" especially shows this shortcoming.

Wang Wei has to take the blame for this.

Because, without exception, all of the nine feature film scripts produced by Light Chaser were written by this boss himself (he also directed the first three himself) - "Three Thousand Miles in Chang'an" was signed under "Red Clay Little Stove" and the "White Snake" series was signed under "Da Mao", all of which are his pseudonyms.

But judging from the market acceptance, Wang Wei's screenwriting skills are actually constantly improving.The Adventures of Atang》《Cat and Peach Blossom Spring》 was severely frustrated, but in 2019, “White Snake: Origin” suddenly opened up. As a result, Light Chaser Animation started the “New Legend” series, followed by the “New Mythology” “New God List” series, and “30,000 Miles in Chang’an” was the beginning of the “New Culture” series - the content map is clear.

In the market, the only animation company with a similar production frequency to Light Chaser is Enlight Pictures, which has launched the hit film "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World》Colorful House. But compared with the latter, the pace of chasing light is more solid.

In other words, it was neither too fast nor too slow. Especially in the first five years, none of the films had a box office of over 100 million yuan, and the worst one, "Cat and Peach Blossom Spring", had only over 20 million yuan. Moreover, Wang Wei not only wrote the screenplay for these films, but also directed them himself.

It has to be said that as an early entrepreneurial star, he has money and can do whatever he wants.

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Light Chaser is actually not the first animation company founded by Wang Wei.

At the end of 2011, three months after Tudou.com went public, it established Beijing Tixian Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (now deregistered), with the legal representative being Yu Zhou, the current COO of Light Chasing Animation, and entered the animation field.

Wang Wei said at the time, "Our goal is to be a great animation company that can create beautiful and exquisite works like Pixar."

Apparently, he had been considering developing the animation industry for a long time, and he also had a dream of building a Chinese Pixar.

Wang Wei no longer had the opportunity to create a Pixar at Tudou.com. After the merger with Youku, he left the Tudou Group soon. On August 23, 2012, he announced his retirement:

"On the night of Chinese Valentine's Day, after seven years of working as a potato, I will officially retire tonight (August 23rd)."

However, Wang Wei did not really retire. Instead, this was the beginning of his next journey.

He went to Tibet and rode a bicycle. He rode from Lhasa to Kathmandu, Nepal. On the second day, his knees were "broken". Wang Wei said: "I rode for about ten days. Every day I rode 100 kilometers, and the altitude was 4,000 to 5,000 meters. I think after going through those extremes, many other things are not that difficult in comparison!"

Later, he went to Europe, Australia, the United States, and Japan, and even planned to buy a yacht and drift on the sea. But Wang Wei soon found it boring. Eight months later, in March 2013, Light Chaser Animation was officially established. That year, he was 40 years old and entered a new track in life.

He wants to continue his Pixar dream. "People always have to do something. It's impossible to just be rich and famous, right?" he said.

In addition, he himself has also rationally analyzed the reasons why he wants to make movies, especially animated films.

In an interview, Wang Wei told the media that he has no interest in "the manipulation and destination of power and money" and that his interest lies in creation. "Nothing can make tens of millions of people dream together like movies. Movies are the only works that I feel are both popular and meticulously crafted."

Therefore, it is natural to choose the animation type.

Although Wang Wei is very artistic, he is actually a computer science major. Since he decided from the beginning that he wanted to be a director, it is hard to imagine him shooting a live-action movie, not to mention that he himself said that he "has no interest in running around the world looking for locations."

When he founded Zhuiguang, unlike Tudou, which was short of money, he had tens of millions of dollars in investment waiting for him. As a former entrepreneurial star, he had no shortage of funds. Of course, he also had money himself.

Three years after Light Chaser was founded, it released its first animated work - "Little Door Gods".

"Considering that each movie takes several years to make, we must take a long-term view." Wang Wei said this when he founded Light Chaser. The company's investors all understand that the nature of this business is long-term. "Movies are a craftsman's job. If the box office is not good, we will continue to make them. If the quality is not good, we will stop making them."

As a start-up work, "Little Door Gods" eventually earned more than 70 million at the box office. In fact, it would cost 300 million to make a profit.

But Wang Wei is not in a hurry. He said that the box office of American animated films is actually higher than that of live-action films. Among the top five highest-grossing films each year, one or two are usually animated films. "So by this calculation, the Chinese market is just a temporary abnormal phenomenon because the works are not good enough."

He obviously knows why the film didn't meet expectations - it's not good enough. In fact, the most important thing is that he is the director and screenwriter, so he can't shirk the blame.

The failure of "Little Door Gods" did not make Wang Wei quit his directorial duties. In the next two years, he wrote and directed "The Adventures of Atang" and "Cat and Peach Blossom Spring".

The box office was even lower, at 20 or 30 million, probably less than one-third of the cost.

Wang Wei spent five years creating three animations, but all of them failed.

But he still wasn't in a hurry.

-4-

Why not let someone else be the director and find a mature screenwriter?

After three consecutive movies failed, many people were more anxious than Wang Wei - hurry up and hire some good screenwriters! Just like many netizens "instructed" Zhang Xiaolong on how to make WeChat, many viewers also wanted to teach Wang Wei how to make animations.

Wang Wei was tired of listening to this. "Everyone tells me to recommend more screenwriters. It's all nonsense. Asking me why you don't find more screenwriters and accumulate more young talents is nonsense."

He also explained why he didn't find someone else to be the director. "It's unreliable for an animation company in a production studio to invite a director from outside, because the team has no confidence in him. We won't give five years of our lives to an outside director."

"After all, it is a startup company. All the responsibilities are concentrated on me to promote it. If not, it will not run so fast and smoothly." He once described his role to the media. To this end, he crammed and read dozens of books on how to be a screenwriter, such as Robert McKee's "Story: Material, Results, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting".

He has his own logic on how to do animation.

Before 2013, the highest-grossing domestic animated film wasPleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Happy Dragon Year”, 165 million; if the film wants to exceed this number, it must be suitable for all ages, or in Wang Wei’s words, “big hands holding small hands.”

But because of this, the first three animated films written and directed by Wang Wei became experimental products that were "neither high nor low" - children couldn't get them, and adults thought they were childish.

By 2018, Light Chaser had been established for exactly five years, and Wang Wei decided to let go.

In the second year after letting go, the Light Chaser animated film, which was not directed by him, unexpectedly became a hit.

This is "White Snake: Origin" - co-directed by Huang Jiakang and Zhao Ji, neither of whom is well-known, and Zhao Ji even has no work experience. Huang Jiakang has experience in Hollywood and participated in "Green Lantern》and other animation projects.

They are the animation talents recruited when Light Chaser was founded, and they have grown with the company. This is also the reason why Wang Wei is relieved.

But to the public, he said: "The company is called Light Chaser Animation, not Wang Wei Studio. Light Chaser is a company that can give opportunities to young people with abilities and ideas."

However, he is still the screenwriter. This is probably Wang Wei's last act of stubbornness.

In fact, the popularity of White Snake: Origin also went through a difficult process. At first, the audience lost interest in the film because it was produced by Light Chaser Animation. This was due to the negative reputation accumulated from the first three films. The cinemas were also not optimistic about it, with very few screenings scheduled, and the box office was dismal in the first weekend.

The audience who occasionally watched it exclaimed that it was good--there was such a Chinese comic work. As a result, they all turned into "tap water", which promoted the growth of the box office and finally won 468 million (this situation is somewhat similar to "Fengshen" in the summer of 2023), which is four or five times the total box office of the first three works.

Although this box office figure cannot cover the losses for five or six consecutive years, the success of "White Snake: Origin" has undoubtedly established recognition for Light Chaser Animation among ordinary audiences and brought it one step closer to the so-called "Chinese Pixar".

In the following four years, Light Chaser released one film per year, releasing their works to the market - and without exception, all of them were accepted by the market, especially "30,000 Miles in Chang'an".

Chasing the light, it’s done.

This story also fully illustrates:

The importance of letting go from your boss.

-5-

It is not necessarily true that Wang Wei has been taking his time over the past 10 years.

He was indeed idealistic at the beginning, hoping that people of all ages would like to watch Light Chaser's animations. However, since the cold reception of "The Adventures of Atang", Wang Wei discovered the problem with family-friendly animations - too few people watch them, especially original IPs.

for example,"Bears"Pleasant Goat" and other works are completely low-age works, and the main audience is children. Undoubtedly, the target is clear. But the first three parts of Chasing Light want to please children and cater to adults, and they are caught in a dilemma. Without the popularity of IP, it is naturally difficult to get high box office - even though the quality of the animation itself is far better than a number of well-known children's IPs.

After analysis, he believes that Chinese audiences have always believed that only Hollywood and Disney family-friendly animated films are worth watching, or they think that domestic animated films are too childish and only children watch them. "So now I think this problem is quite big. But the problem is that it may not be our work that can change this impression."

In July 2017, the box office of "A Tang's Adventure" was less than half of that of "Little Door God". In an interview, Wang Wei, who rarely showed off his talents, said something angrily:

"I'm not bragging, but from the perspective of the animation industry, The Adventures of Atang has reached this level. If the audience still has this kind of reaction, then I think no one will make family-oriented movies in the future."

The market's cold reception made Wang Wei, who was originally patient, quite disappointed.

"The company needs to be able to support itself and generate returns." Wang Wei knows this very well.

Perhaps, because of this, Wang Wei exiled his ideals, and Light Chaser also abandoned the creative direction of trying to cater to both adults and children, and instead focused on the adult market. It was not until the appearance of "Three Thousand Miles in Chang'an" that the possibility of "big hands holding small hands" was possible again.

Although Wang Wei hoped that Light Chaser could become China's Pixar at the beginning of its establishment, he may not think so now. When "New Gods: Yang Jian" was released in the summer of 2022, Wang Wei's entrepreneurial partner and Light Chaser Animation COO Yu Zhou said in an interview with "Entertainment Spring and Autumn":

"We never dream, we just keep our feet on the ground and produce one work a year. We should learn from their good points, but we definitely don't follow them, because the times, environment and market are different."

Indeed, Light Chaser is unique in the domestic animation industry.

Although the box office of "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" produced by Color Strip House under Enlight Entertainment reached 5 billion, it is more like a "historical accident" that is difficult to replicate. To date, Color Strip House's works are still not "established" - even with the two works of Nezha and Jiang Ziya, the "Fengshen" universe is far from being completed, and the others are all individual operations.

On the other hand, Light Chasing has created "new legends", "new myths" and "new culture", drawing inspiration from the ancient Chinese cultural tradition. This is a perfect combination for the art form of animation, and the key point is that the IP is completely free.

More importantly, as an animation brand, Light Chaser has been "gladly" accepted by the audience - just like "White Snake: Floating Life" was a hit even though it was not that good. So, rather than saying that Light Chaser has found the box office code, it is better to say that after five years of immersion, it has become an animation company that the audience can trust.

In China, very few people trust a film and television brand. From this perspective, Light Chaser can indeed be called the Chinese version of Pixar.

From the subsequent film list, we can see that Light Chaser continues to dig inspiration from traditional classics. The second Easter egg of "White Snake: Floating Life" revealed the title of "Liao Zhai: Lanruo Temple", which is the story of Ning Caichen and Nie Xiaoqian; and in the summer of 2026, there will be "Three Kingdoms: The Battle for Luoyang".

In the next two or three years, if Light Chaser can produce another blockbuster like "30,000 Miles in Chang'an", the label of "Chinese version of Pixar" will be completely established.

As long as Wang Wei doesn't make the same mistake again——

Be generous to women.