大鱼海棠 [Big Fish and Begonia] (2016)

《北冥有鱼，其名为鲲，鲲之大不知其几千里也 。》

Above is the opening line in this Chinese animated film that reeks of Studio Ghibli influences, most in particular my favorite SG movie Spirited Away. The first time I knew of this is through a song 《大鱼》performed by 周深 and 郭沁, both having such fine delicate voice quality, the kind that refreshes the soul. It is a coming-of-age story about a girl named Chun who follows the typical hero (or maybe we should create a new trope which is the heroine) journey which changes her life forever.

Chun is friends with Qiu and early on one can already sense that even these two have entangled fates, because well, homophones for 春秋 (Spring and Autumn). Both are part of a community of magical beings. For instance, Chun has powers to grow vines and trees pretty much like Kurama of Yuyu Hakusho and Ueki of Law of Ueki. Qiu has the power to control wind, like Airbender Aang and Fuu of Recca no Honoo. LOL I just can't help but compare. There is also a fire user who reminds me of 哪吒, for whom I have grown a big obsession because of his role in 《封神榜》. 

Chun participates in a ritual wherein youngsters visit the human world in the form of red dolphins for seven days. After that, they will come back to their community. Chun's mother is worried because previously a girl was not able to return and so she reminds Chun never to interact with human beings. Chun spends most days happily swimming with other red dolphins in the sea. One night she is caught by a net from a big ship and calls our for help to which a boy responds who set her free. The boy drowns in the process leaving his little sister crying in the storm. Chun becomes guilty and seeks of a way to restore the boy back to life. She visits the SoulKeeper and makes a pact with him that in exchange for the boy's soul, she will lose half of her life. She is given the responsibility to care for the fish, which reminds me of the animated movie 《哪吒之魔童降世》wherein the spirit ball is given to a master to cultivate and this spirit ball becomes the young fire warrior 哪吒. Qiu suggests the name Kun for the fish in reference to the big fish in Chinese mythology, and quoting 《北冥有鱼，其名为鲲，鲲之大不知其几千里也 。》For a while, Chun is happy with Kun until things get out of hand and a calamity is starting to be felt in the community which according to old folks, is caused by a violation of sorts to the natural order of things. Qiu helps Chun in every way possible even though at the start he also almost caused harm to Kun, but seeing Chun's determined efforts to bring Kun back to life in the human world, he helps him and sacrifices himself as well in the end, giving his own life in order that Chun will not die when she releases Kun in the human world. Qiu is also responsible for opening the portal to the human world so that the two can escape. In the destructive flood and chaos that ensue, the Mouse Keeper takes advantage of the open portal to go to the human world. Meanwhile, seeing her community in distress, Chun sacrifices her own life and merges herself with her grandfather who has now become a begonia tree "after death" to help the people to safety. After the chaos, Chun sets Kun free and at this moment, Qiu casts a spell given to him by the SoulKeeper so that he will burn away and in return, Chun will not die. He grabs Chun and they both jump off the cliff telling his friend that they will meet again (Spirited Away feels again). In the end, Kun is transformed back to his original form. He is seen washed ashore together with Chun. Qiu on the other hand, is revived to become the SoulKeeper's successor.

《上古有大椿者，以八千岁为春，八千岁为秋。》

Above confirms the relationship between Chun and Qiu, that they indeed have entangled fates.Why do I have the feeling that there will be a part 2 of this movie? 

In 1:00:30, Qiu tells a barman that he wants to forget something but can't seem to be successful in doing so. The barman tells him, it's no use to try to forget because to really forget something, one does not need to put in effort. 

Qiu: It's painful

Barman: Sometimes to feel pain is a good thing.

Qiu: Is there something I can take to ease the pain?

Barman: I have this what humans call 孟婆汤 which can make you forget all your painful and beautiful memories.

Qiu instead asks for a jar of wine.

Note: The 孟婆汤 in Chinese mythology allows one to forget everything when drunk. It can very well be the inspiration for Andy Lau's 忘情水. 

This is one animated film I will most probably watch over and over again. I wish China makes more animated movies of this kind. I've seen a few China-made animated films and so far everything has surprised me and exceeded my expectations, like the 2017 小门神 and last year's 哪吒之魔童降世. I am also looking forward to watching 白蛇缘起 next. Honestly, I want China to really develop an excellent animation industry because of the very very good materials that Chinese culture has. The four classics have been made into different film and TV series versions. And we're not yet talking about the ultra cool 封神榜 and 蒲松龄's 聊斋志异. As a huge fan of fantasy and having known some of these Chinese tales as a child, I have always relied on Japanese anime to adapt them and turn them into visual spectacles. Now is the time that finally China takes its soft power seriously and is paying attention to its creative industries which it should have done a long time ago. Western fantasy seems super boring compared to Eastern stuff, I must say. Just that to be honest there are a lot of crappy Chinese films and you really really have to sift through a lot of material to find gems.

中国加油！

藏獒多吉 [Tibetan Dog] (2011)

On Q's birthday, I was on leave. I filed this beforehand with the thought that we might be spending time together but then things ended in July, a week after our last meetup. Instead of cancelling my leave, I used the time to read on stuff and to watch a movie and 藏獒多吉 happened to catch my attention. I love big dogs and I think they are so much more huggable than toy dogs. If ever I would love to have a big furry one like chow-chow, Alaskan malamute, Siberian husky, and now a Tibetan mastiff. Super cute! Except I will need to sacrifice because these huge dogs carry with them huge appetites as well. 

The movie opens with a boy whose mother just died and so he is fetched to join his father in Tibet where he finds himself unaccustomed to the pastoral life. He takes on the duty of herding sheep and one day encounters danger when bears appeared but a golden Tibetan Mastiff saves him. The golden dog is challenged by another mastiff and they dueled until they fell off the cliff, but were both nursed back to health. The boy grows close to the golden dog.

Somewhere, another group of men encounters a wild monster, probably a yeti. The leader's brother is killed and the last thing the group sees is Toji the golden Tibetan Mastiff. They assumed that he is the one who did the killings. In parallel, the boy's father has also been investigating the unusual killings going on. Toji is held captive until proven innocent and fearful that the dog will be executed, the boy and his friend released him to escape. Eventually the yeti appears and kills off the other group's leader. The yeti and Toji engage in a fight and even Toji's friend, the challenger mastiff helped in the fight. When the boy's life was in danger, Toji rushed to him and saved him, himself falling in the process resulting in his death. Later on it is learned that Toji has left behind a cute golden puppy which now accompanies the boy wherever he goes.

This is a must-watch for children or even adults who love dogs. Not only does it show the friendship between humans and animals, it also shows how intelligent dogs can be. I shared this movie to Q after wishing him a happy birthday. He just said he'll watch but I doubt it, and I don't want to care. I stopped believing in a person whose integrity and sincerity is questionable in order to appear civil and polite. I believe that people can be polite while still being true and authentic. But then in many many ways, animals are way better than humans. It's true what they say about how caring for animals is more worth it than caring for humans who will one day just hurt you.

ParaNorman (2012)

Whenever I catch a movie in theaters last year, the trailer of ParaNorman would always be on alongside Despicable Me 2. And while I made a mental note to watch it on the big screen, my loyalty to my budget always prevails. So it's only now that I got to watch it. 

The movie opens with a gloomy atmosphere. Heck all throughout the movie, that gloom persists, only cut short occasionally by sudden bursts of hilarious comedic scenes. I can't stop wondering if parents complained about how this movie is too scary for children. It just feels so dark, that same feeling I get when I watch the Harry Potter movies. BUT, the movie is a must-see especially nowadays when bullying is rampant and kids need to be educated early on about what bullying can do and how it affects the victim.

A kid named Norman is seen as a freak by his classmates and is always bullied for being weird. When zombies rose from their graves because of a witch's curse, Norman must face his fears and confront the witch for the sake of the town he lives in. The witch used to be a young girl killed by the townspeople for being different. People were scared of her so instead of trying to understand, they disposed of her. Pretty much what Norman is experiencing, only he's not killed.

Norman persuades Agatha not to forget who she is and to remember the people who have been kind to her.

A touching scene in the movie is the confrontation wherein Norman tells Agatha the witch that they're the same, that hurting those who hurt you won't do anyone good, that despite the general hatred there's at least one person who loves her. And because this is a movie for children, naturally everything ends well.

This movie reminds me a lot of Frankenweenie and Coraline though the latter has this eerie feel all throughout. (I would learn later on that ParaNorman was created by the same company that gave us Coraline.) What I consider astounding is the visual effects of the film especially in the scene where Agatha assumes the form of a golden lightning-like being. No wonder this movie raked in nominations and awards.

Some web articles that I found interesting:

Cinematographer Tristan Oliver on ParaNorman

Drawn to century-old technique

Immersed in Movies: Exploring 'ParaNorman' VFX

'ParaNorman's' Travis Knight: The Nike Scion Behind the Oscar-Nominated Film

Coraline (2009)

The moment I laid eyes on this film, I knew I'm going to like it. Part of the reason why I chose to watch this film is because it has the same name as my baby doll who still sleeps beside me. I called her thus because that's the name I found sewed on one of her pockets. And it just so happens that there is also a doll in this movie.

Coraline though is not a doll in this 3D animated film. Instead she is a spunky, brave, resourceful, and yes, overly curious little girl whose parents were too busy to pay any real attention to her. She was given a doll who looks exactly like her by a boy who lives in the same neighborhood. This doll was used by an evil entity residing in another world to spy on Coraline as she wants the girl to be with her. When she woke up one night and saw a mouse, she followed it and discovered a passageway leading to the Other World where she met her Other Mother and Other Father who paid her attention unlike her real parents.

Coraline would go back every night until she was warned of the evil of the Other World. She then learned of other children who disappeared into the Other World and never came back. Judging the Other Mother to be evil, she decided never to go back again. But then she learned that her parents were kidnapped and only she could save them. With the aid of a seeing stone given to her by two odd female neighbors, a cat, and Other Wybie, Coraline succeeded (of course) in freeing her parents from Other Mother.

The animation in this movie is quite different from Shrek or Kung Fu Panda. I must say that this is the first time I have seen such an animation and doing a bit of research, I found out that it is Stop Motion animation.

The plot is good, as expected from a work based on Neil Gaiman's work. It somehow reminds me of Roald Dahl whose stories for children are full of moral lessons. In this case, it's that no other family can replace your real family.