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There is no magical change or subversion, and it tells a love story that is familiar to the audience in a down-to-earth manner.

Text | Que Zheng

Last summer, the animated film "30,000 Miles from Chang'an" became a dark horse of the summer season. Light Chaser Animation portrayed the poets and knights as a 30,000-mile long scroll of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, giving the audience an immersive traditional Chinese style experience.

After being amazed by the prosperous Tang Dynasty Chang'an, everyone is looking forward to when it will be the turn of "Ya Song" to go online and have another "Dream of the Red Chamber"?

In the blink of an eye, it is this year's summer season. Although the Northern Song Dynasty poets still hold the pipa and half-cover their faces, the Southern Song Dynasty Lin'an opened first in a familiar way - the love story of White Snake and Xu Xian by the West Lake, which has been passed down for thousands of years, is quietly revived in the animated film "White Snake: Floating Life".

A picture scroll of Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty

The story of "White Snake: Floating Life" begins and ends on the Lantern Festival, and lasts for a whole year, through spring, autumn, cold and summer, presenting a complete picture of the life of Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty - willow trees sway on both sides of the Hefang Street, vendors hawk their wares in the market, pedestrians are constantly passing by, people clink glasses between buildings, people eat qingtuan on the Cold Food Festival, drink realgar wine on the Dragon Boat Festival, and dragon boat races are being held in the river...

Before filming began, the production team bought a replica of the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" scroll, a very long scroll, and spread it out on the table. Everyone studied it together: "Look at what the people in it are doing - some are selling cattle, some are doing labor, some are doing business, all kinds of business. We added these things with the texture of life into the film to make the whole world alive."

The story of Legend of the White Snake takes place in Lin'an (now Hangzhou), so the directors also visited many places in Hangzhou: Hefang Street, Jiuxi Shibajian, Leifeng Pagoda, West Lake... The Lin'an finally presented in the movie has both leisurely streets exuding an ancient atmosphere and the romantic and elegant Jiangnan water town that has been passed down to this day.

Compared with the unrestrained and carefree style of "Chang'an 30,000 Miles", the Song Dynasty in "White Snake: Floating Life" is more "elegant". It is worth mentioning that the traditional elements used in the film are also very exquisite in details - from the gesture of "ordering tea" to the shape of a silver coin, all of which are in line with the characteristics of the times.

The 20-second animation took 3 months to make

It has been five years since the first film in the "White Snake" series, "White Snake: Origin".

The "White Snake: Origin" of that year took a different approach and told a prequel to the White Snake, telling the love story between Xiaobai and Xu Xian's previous life, A Xuan.

White Snake: Origin

"White Snake 2: The Tribulation of Green Snake" is also a fresh start, letting "Xiaoqing" go on an adventure in the fantasy world of Shura City that combines ancient and modern times.

White Snake 2: Rise of the Green Snake

Now the third part of the "White Snake" series, "White Snake: Floating Life", is back. The story line continues from "White Snake: Origin", with the hundreds of years of White Snake legend as the core of the story. There is no magical change, no subversion, and it tells a love story that is familiar to the audience.

White Snake: Floating Life

In the movie, Xiaobai always remembers what Axuan had done for him 500 years ago, and decides to go to Lin'an to look for Xu Xian, the reincarnation of Axuan. From their meeting at West Lake to opening a clinic to help the villagers, he accidentally drank realgar wine on the Dragon Boat Festival and revealed his true form, stole the Ganoderma lucidum, and was separated by Fahai as a couple... In this era, it takes some courage to stick to the original path of classic love.

In the opinion of director Li Jiakai, the original ending of the story of "Legend of the White Snake" was "flooding Jinshan Mountain", which seemed too cruel: "Everyone knows that the flooding of Jinshan Mountain in the Legend of the White Snake will inevitably lead to a tragic ending. We still hope that Xiaobai and Xiaoqing will be in an upward and positive state at the end of the movie, so we left a blank here. The love between Xu Xian and Bai Niangzi is expressed more equally and more two-way, so that the story ends in an upward mood. In this movie, Xu Xian and Bai Niangzi will bravely face the difficulties in life, make decisions together, and firmly choose each other - this kind of courage is actually very lacking in us today, and I hope it can give everyone some encouragement."

Director Chen Jianxi (second from left) and Li Jiakai (third from left)

"White Snake: Floating Life" is co-directed by Chen Jianxi and Li Jiakai. Chen Jianxi was the animation team leader of "White Snake: Origin", while Li Jiakai was responsible for the storyboard work of "White Snake 2: Green Snake". In the eyes of the two directors, the most difficult scene in the new film is the complex inner feelings when Xu Xian finds out that the white snake is his wife Xiaobai: "Mortals will definitely feel fear when facing a 20-meter-high white snake, but we need him to express enough courage to accept it within 20 seconds after knowing that Bai Niangzi is a snake. This turning point must be established, so that the character can stand out and change people's previous stereotypes of Xu Xian."

The directors spent three months working on this 20-second scene, repeatedly adjusting it until they were satisfied with the result. "We wanted to express a very pure love, where there is no suspicion or division between the two people, and it is a two-way love. It may not be very innovative, but we feel that we need to awaken everyone to examine this feeling."

A role I couldn't imagine five years ago

Based on the love mainline of "The Legend of White Snake", "White Snake: Floating Life" also added a lot of "new" elements - Xu Xian's brother-in-law Li Gongfu existed in classical legends. In this animated film, he has many roles and is the funny man in the whole film.

"We added comedy elements because we hope the overall style of the film will be more relaxed and down-to-earth, so that Xiaobai and Xuxian can blend into the daily life of the city," said Li Jiakai. "We don't want Xiaobai and his friends' journey to be boring or full of misery. We hope there will be many beautiful memories."

Li Gongfu

Li Gongfu's Past Life

Audiences who have watched "White Snake: Origin" know that Li Gongfu was a small yellow dog by A Xuan's side in his previous life, so he still has some dog habits in this life. Like him, the new weapon of Fahai, the "Golden Haired Hound", becomes the funny guy. The Golden Haired Hound itself is an extension of the Buddhist beads. "Most of Fahai's skills are extended from props, such as the phoenix, which came out of the cassock, and his golden bowl can also capture monsters, and then there are Buddhist beads. In fact, what we thought at the beginning was that Fahai is just a mortal. He has no ability to detect monsters. He can only detect monsters through his props. So the imagination of detecting monsters in animals is more similar to dogs." Chen Jianxi combined the image of the Fabu and the mythical beast, and the new "Golden Haired Hound" was born. "The Fabu is very fun, very fierce, very arrogant, and has personality. Coupled with some attributes of the mythical beast, such as the fur of auspicious clouds and the horns of the mythical beast, these elements are supplemented, and a cute and adorable image of the mythical beast emerges."

Fahai and the Golden-haired Lion

The reason why we dare to create these novel characters is also related to the development of domestic animation technology in the past five years. The advancement of technology has improved the overall animation film. "Look at the difference between the first film and the current one. Xiaobai's appearance and skin texture have improved a lot, and even his hair is thinner than before!" Li Jiakai said, "We dare to arrange the battle between the Green Snake and the White Snake and the Golden Haired Hound at the end, also because of the development of technology today, we are able to handle a large amount of hair, so the hair movement of the Golden Haired Hound in the battle will not become an obstacle."

Even the chubby bellies of Li Gongfu and the two crane boys in the movie were made possible by technology: "We have a more mature grasp of the elasticity of objects and can create a sense of flesh. This progress also allows us to create some cute and comedic characters and make some exaggerated expressions - we would not have dared to think of these characters five years ago."

Hosei-bouzu

The character who attracted a lot of attention in the first two films, the little fox, Baoqingfangzhu, also has a lot of roles in the new film, and is combined with traditional opera elements to give the audience a cool drama. In the eyes of the two directors, the little fox is the spectator of the "White Snake" series. She has infinite possibilities for transformation. Although the original story of "White Snake" has ended, she may appear in other stories in the future.

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