ARTS | CINEMA
LEGENDS OF THE SCREEN How Mythological Stories are Taking Over Cinema in China By Bryan Grogan
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s a country with millennia of history, culture and legends, Chinese directors have long held a love for tales that invoke mythical characters, both for the TV screen and for movie audiences. The notable success of a number of films based around myths has inspired production companies such as Enlight Media, and its subsidiary Colorroom Pictures, which was established back in 2015 specifically to make animated pictures. The growth of interest in, and interconnected nature of mythological films has been compared to the Marvel extended universe, with some within film circles seemingly hopeful of constructing a similarly lucrative franchise. One such upcoming series, the Fengshen Trilogy, has been compared to the Lord of the Rings. Taking inspiration from a 16th Century novel called The Investiture of the Gods, production on the Fengshen Trilogy will involve a crew of around 7,000 people. Given the enormous success that animated film Ne Zha achieved in 2019, it looks as though the market for animated films based around mythological characters will continue to grow. With the supposed spiritual successor to Ne Zha, Legend of Deification soon to hit cinemas around China (after being delayed because of the coronavirus outbreak) the continued push behind animated mythological films shows no sign of letting up. Here are some of the more recent mythological films that have paved the way for Chinese cinemagoers’ rabid interest in mythological movies.
Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015) Taking the beloved story of Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, as its basis, this charming kids movie sees Sun Wukong freed by a young child after being imprisoned for 500 years for acting the – well – monkey. The story shows the maturation of the hero as he works to save a village from the assault of monsters. Based on the endlessly inspiring 16th century novel, Journey to the West, the legend of the Monkey King has been remade numerous times, but never has it looked so good as it did in this computer animated.
30 | GBA | MARCH 2020 | WWW.THATSMAGS.COM
