The Tale of the White Serpent
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| The Tale of the White Serpent | |
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| Directed by | Taiji Yabushita Kazuhiko Okabe |
| Produced by | Hiroshi Ôkawa |
| Written by | Taiji Yabushita Shin Uehara |
| Starring | Hisaya Morishige Mariko Miyagi |
| Music by | Chuji Kinoshita |
| Cinematography | Takamitsu Tsukahara |
| Editing by | Shinataro Miyamoto |
| Distributed by | Toei Animation |
| Release date(s) |  October 22, 1958 March 15, 1961 |
| Running time | 78 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Tale of the White Serpent (白蛇伝 Haku Ja Den?) is the first color anime feature film, released in 1958. It was also the first to be released in America, under the title Panda and the Magic Serpent. It is also known variously as Legend of the White Snake, The Great White Snake and the The White Snake Enchantress.
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[edit] Background
The film is essentially an adaptation of the Song dynasty folktale "Madame White Snake" (白蛇傳).[1] Shin Uehara adapted the folktale and kept the Chinese-style characters and names. The decision of a Chinese story being used as the concept blueprint came from Toei president Hiroshi Ōkawa, who wanted to strike a tone of reconciliation with the Asian neighbors.[2] Given the point in time, the film pushed Japanese animation technology to the limit, making this a large scale major project involving a total of 13,590 staff during the 2 year production period. [3] And while the film received honors at the Venice Children's Film Festival in Italy in 1959, it was regarded as a disappointment when released to the US in March 15, 1961 by Global Pictures. The US version made changes such as interpreting the small Red Panda, Mimi, as a cat.[4] In addition all traces of the Japanese production teams were removed from the US version. Time wise, Tale of the White Serpent was Tōei Dōga's first attempt at becoming the Disney of the east.
[edit] Story
Xu-Xian, a young boy, once owned a pet snake in West Lake until his parents forced him to give her up. Years pass and during a violent storm, the snake magically transforms into the beautiful princess Bai-Niang. Bai-Niang finds Xu-Xian, but the lovers are separated by a local monk, Fa-Hai, who believes that Bai-Niang is an evil spirit. Xu-Xian's two Panda pets, Panda and Mimi, try to find Xu-Xian. In the end, Bia-Niang gives up her magical powers and remains in human form to prove that her love for Xu-Xian is genuine.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Chinese Mythology." Bilingual Book Explanation of Legend of the White Snake. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
- ^ "Anipages Daily." Anipages Daily. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
- ^ "Masterpiece of last 50 years." Japanese Animated Film Festival. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
- ^ Clements, Jonathan. McCarthy Helen. [2006] (2006). The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5
[edit] External links
- The Tale of the White Serpent (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
