The films are constantly updated, with rich genres and diverse themes, and the works of new directors are crowded in the summer season
2024-08-17
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This article is reproduced from [Beijing Youth Daily];
New cultural observations on summer movies
In "White Snake: Floating Life", Xu Xian and the White Snake are integrated into the market; "Falling into the Mortal World" remakes the story of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" and presents the concept of the twenty-eight constellations on the screen for the first time; "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century" is impressive through the science fiction setting of "a sneeze traveling back and forth 20 years" and the comedy style of advanced mental state; the movie "The Warehouse" uses Peking Opera as a unique entry point, allowing youthful vitality and ancient art to collide to create sparks... This summer, a group of excellent new films have emerged, and although the new directors of the above four films are directing feature films for the first time, they have brought surprises to the film market. This shows the rapid growth of young forces in Chinese films.
Summer season has become a box office paradise for new directors
This year's summer movies continue to be "new", with rich genres and diverse themes. According to real-time data from Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of 19:00 on August 14, the total box office (including pre-sales) for the 2024 summer movies has exceeded 9.5 billion. Chinese directors are constantly exploring through their works, looking for a creative path that will reach the hearts of the audience.
In recent years, the summer season, which targets young audiences, has become a box office haven for new directors. Works such as Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World directed by Jiaozi, Vanishing Girl directed by Cui Rui and Liu Xiang, and 30,000 Miles from Chang'an directed by Xie Junwei and Zou Jing all became famous during the summer season. The summer season has become a haven for young directors.
In this summer season, Zhong Ding, the director of "Falling into the Mortal World", Li Yang, the director of "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century", Chen Jianxi and Li Jiakai, the directors of "White Snake: Floating Life", and Zhang Yudi, the director of "The Warehouse", are all directing feature films for the first time. As new directors, they have injected vitality into this summer season and allowed the audience to see their future possibilities.
In order to polish their first feature films, several new directors have accumulated a lot of experience and continued to learn and grow in the creative process. The movie "Falling into the Mortal World" was born out of the graduation project of students from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, which became popular on Bilibili in 2020. After five years of creation, it was released on July 12 this year. For director Zhong Ding, the creation of the movie "Falling into the Mortal World" enabled him to complete the transformation from an animation teacher to an animation director. "The 13 students who participated in the graduation project went their separate ways after graduation. Three of them chose to stay in the project and inherited the 'DNA' of "Falling into the Mortal World". I seemed to have gone to college again in the process of trying, exploring, overthrowing and starting over with the students."
The box office of "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century", which was released on August 2, has exceeded 100 million yuan. The short film "The Adventures of Li Xianji" created by director Li Yang was called "the best domestic animation in 2009" by netizens. Ten years later, Li Yang went from making animations to directing movies. In the film, he continued his strong personal style, but also added thoughts on youth, growth and the future.
As a major film in this year's Chinese Valentine's Day, White Snake: Floating Life has grossed 230 million yuan as of August 14. The film's director, Chen Jianxi, was the animation team leader of White Snake: Origin in 2019 and the animation director of White Snake 2: The Green Snake, and is very familiar with the White Snake series. Another director, Li Jiakai, was originally a loyal fan of White Snake: Origin, and later joined Light Chaser Animation, and participated in the storyboard creation of White Snake 2: The Green Snake, New Gods: Yang Jian, and 30,000 Miles from Chang'an. Both of them jumped out of their professional fields and took on the creative responsibility of the entire film.
The film "Warehouse" won the first prize of the 15th FIRST Youth Film Festival and the "China Good Story" winning project of the 34th China Film Golden Rooster Award Film Venture Capital Conference. The film will be released on August 24. Director Zhang Yudi first thought of this story in 2017. The inspiration came from a chat with his college classmate and screenwriter Xueying. At that time, she had just graduated from Fudan University and went to the Southern California Film Academy for graduate studies. "After I got the inspiration for the story, I really started writing the script from 2018 to 2021. In the meantime, we shot another short film, and then from the short film to the feature film, we never stopped discussing this story, and our imagination of it has continued."
Infuse new ideas into traditional culture and create emotional resonance with current audiences
The ever-changing tastes of the audience have also prompted film works to focus on the collision of culture and time. Several directors strive to inject new ideas into their works, highlighting their individuality while creating an emotional resonance with the current audience.
The novelty of the movie "Falling into the Mortal World" lies in the extension of the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and all the creative elements revolve around the emotional core. Zhong Ding said: "In the film, the brother and sister Jinfeng Yulu not only traced the identity of their mother, but also highlighted the theme of family affection in the film. In addition, the image of the Weaver Girl has also been innovatively adapted. She is no longer the image of passively waiting for love in traditional stories, but has become a woman with the common people in her heart." The film tried a brand new Chinese style design in visual aesthetics.
White Snake: Floating Life follows the love storyline in the folk "Legend of the White Snake", allowing young audiences to see the charm of the traditional story, but also adds a lively comedy element to enhance the tension and possibility of the narrative. The classic characters in the film have been given new vitality. Director Li Jiakai said that Xu Xian's emotional shaping is richer, and Fahai, the "villain", has become more humane.
The White Snake series is a representative work of Light Chaser Animation's "New Legend" series. In the eyes of director Chen Jianxi, "New Legend" is to tell traditional stories to everyone in a new way, new way of telling, and new angle. "The creation of White Snake: Floating Life draws nourishment from traditional Chinese culture. It not only vividly presents the thousand-year-old elegance of the Song Dynasty, but also uses festivals as the time nodes of the story, and perfectly integrates the quintessence of Chinese opera elements into the film."
"Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century" carries the usual imaginative style of director Li Yang, with magical narration and highly stylized pictures, rich and bizarre imagination, unconventional narrative logic and emotional resonance themes that bring rich viewing experiences from different angles to the film. It cleverly combines science fiction, comedy, youth and other elements, making the film both entertaining and full of philosophical thoughts.
In the movie "Dao Cang", the growth of a teenager collides with the quintessence of Peking Opera. All the anxiety and confusion are concentrated in the transformation moment of "Dao Cang", making the youth story exciting. Director Zhang Yudi constructs the protagonist with real youth and real growth, showing the integration of Peking Opera and the lives of young people. Peking Opera elements are not only an embellishment of ancient culture, but also deeply penetrated into the plot, character creation and theme expression, becoming the soul of the whole film.
Focus on the collision of culture and times to create a unique aesthetic style
There is a natural tacit understanding between the new forces of the film and the new technology, which focuses on the collision of culture and times and creates a unique aesthetic style. The two directors of "White Snake: Floating Life" have a deep understanding of this. They said that it took five years from the first "White Snake: Origin" to the third "White Snake: Floating Life". During these five years, the progress of Chinese animation technology has brought a qualitative leap to the film. Li Jiakai said: "The most intuitive point is that the hair is thinner than before."
With the support of new technologies, the team can better shape the characters, from the delicateness of the character's skin to the realistic expression of hair and the natural presentation of elasticity. "Five years ago, we would not have dared to try the exaggerated movements and expressions of these characters. Now, the leap in technology has allowed us to fully unleash our creativity."
"Falling into the Mortal World" carries the dreams and innovative spirit of a group of young animators. The film tries a brand-new Chinese style design in visual aesthetics. Zhong Ding said: "We want to create a different temperament of the divine world, all white cloth, black roof, a particularly elegant and extreme presentation. In order to achieve this effect, we have to keep trying and iterate to get the best effect." In terms of world view setting, "Falling into the Mortal World" uses fabric art as the core visual element to weave the two worlds of gods and mortals. The golden thread in Jin Feng's hand is smart and precise. It is not only a weapon for fighting, but also a tool for sewing, and a medium for expressing the inner world. Every wave of the golden thread is like an artist freely swaying on the canvas, allowing the audience to marvel at its beauty and feel its hidden power.
In "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century", Li Yang skillfully combines the animation style with live-action performances to create a unique visual feast. The clever embedding of animation elements not only adds a touch of fantasy to the film, but also expands the audience's imagination. The film shows innovative artistic charm in editing, lens use and color matching. The editing is compact, the rhythm is strong, and the camera movement is full of tension, giving the film infinite vitality. The clever use of lens techniques such as close-ups and slow motion allows the audience to have a deeper insight into the inner drama of the characters.
Young directors, with passion and imagination as their source, together with mature directors, are opening up the future for Chinese films. As these emerging forces grow stronger, Chinese films will usher in a broader stage, injecting continuous impetus into the dream of building a film powerhouse.
Text/Reporter Xiao Yang
