Princess Iron Fan 铁扇公主 ~ Chinese Movies&TV

Princess Iron Fan is the first Chinese animated feature film. The existence of this film itself is more meaningful than its content for Chines. It was directed in Shanghai under difficult conditions in the thick of World War II and was released on January 1, 1941.

Plot

The story was liberally adapted from a short sequence in the popular Chinese folk tale Journey to the West (西游记Xīyóujì). Princess Iron Fan is a main character. Specifically, the film focused on the duel between the Monkey King and a vengeful princess, whose fan is desperately needed to quench the flames that surround a peasant village.

Background

The Wan family twins Wan Laiming (万籁鸣Wàn Làimíng) and Wan Guchan (万古蟾Wàn Gǔchán) with their brothers Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan were the first animators in China. After the release of their first “real” cartoon, Uproar in the Heaven (大闹天宫Dà nào Tiāngōng), they continued to dominate China’s animation industry for the next several decades. In the late 1930s, with Shanghai under Japanese occupation, they began work on China’s first feature-length animated film. In 1939 the Wan brothers saw Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and set the standard in attempting to create a film of equal quality for the nation’s honor.

The film took three years, 237 artists and 350,000 yuan to make. Although the Disney influence is apparent in much of the animation, there is also a distinct Chinese flavour in the film – a flavour that would grow much stronger with the Wan brothers’ subsequent films in the following decades. Rotoscoping was used extensively to save money, and the eyes of the live actors are often visible in the faces of the animated characters.

Priness Iron Fan is the first animated feature film which made in China by chinese people themselves. It is really wonderful and attractive film nomatter for adults or children.