Dancing with lions |
国漫新秀《雄狮少年》:传统文化的现实表达 |
www.i21st.cn |
BY 花消英气 from 21st Century Published 2022-01-13 |
When it comes to Chinese animated films, which titles first come to mind? Big Fish & Begonia, Ne Zha or Legend of Deification? They are based on Chinese mythology. But I Am What I Am sets its eyes on reality. The film, released on Dec 17, shows three stay-at-home children from a poor village in Guangdong. The story follows a boy named A’juan and two of his close friends as they overcome difficulties in pursuing their dream – becoming the best lion dance performers. As of Dec 22, it has earned a score of 8.3 out of 10 on Douban. What makes it distinctive is the film highlighting a centuries-old Chinese folk art – lion dance. This is attributed to the director Sun Haipeng’s personal life experience. Sun lived in Guangdong for over 10 years and has been fascinated by lion dancing there. Previously, he was also impressed by a lion dance performance when he was on vacation abroad. “The performance is exciting and powerful. At the moment, I felt a sudden surge of pride in our national culture,” Sun told Beijing News. As an animated filmmaker, Sun decided to bring this to the big screen. But it was not easy. Technically speaking, the biggest problem lay in how to vividly present the moves of the head of the lion through special effects, Sun told The Paper. Different lion heads are made out of different materials. This greatly affects how the hair on the lion’s head moves. So the production team bought many lion heads to observe, photographing the movements of the hair. They then spent several months designing each individual hair on the lion’s head to make it look as realistic as possible. The music of the film is in the Guangdong style and uses Cantonese. Bands from Guangdong, like Wu Tiao Ren and Jiu Lian Zhen Ren, made music for the film. With its Chinese-style visual and audio effects, the audience can see the story of the characters trying to realize their dreams while feeling the charm of the traditional culture, Foshan News noted. (Translator & Editor: Li Xinzhu AND Luo Sitian)
https://www.i21st.cn/story/3755.html |
辞海拾贝
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