Princess Iron Fan (1941 film)
| Princess Iron Fan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by |
Wan Guchan Wan Laiming |
| Produced by |
Wan Guchan Wan Laiming |
| Distributed by | Cinema Epoch |
Release date | January 1, 1941 (China) |
Running time | 73 min |
| Country | China |
Princess Iron Fan (simplified Chinese: 铁扇公主; traditional Chinese: 鐵扇公主; pinyin: Tiě shàn gōngzhǔ), is the first Chinese animated feature film. The film is based on an episode of the novel Journey to the West. It was directed in Shanghai under difficult conditions in the thick of World War II by Wan Guchan and Wan Laiming (the Wan brothers) and was released on January 1, 1941.
Plot
The story was liberally adapted from a short sequence in the popular Chinese novel Journey to the West. 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.
Creators
| Romanized | Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Supervision | Chang Shan-Kun | 張善琨 |
| Animation Screenplay | Wang Gan-Bai | 王乾白 |
| Consultant | Chen Yiqing | 陳翼青 |
| Sound Recording | Liu En-Ze | 劉恩澤 |
| Musical Adaptation | Huang Yi-Jun | 黃貽鈞 |
| Music Advisor | Zhang Zheng-Fan | 章正凡 |
| Music | Lu Zhong-Ren | 陸仲任 |
| Special Effects | Chen Zhong | 陳中 |
| Editing | Wang Jin-Yi | 王金義 |
| Photofinishing | LinXiang Fu Xu Hexiang Chen Xinfu |
林祥富 許荷香 陳鑫甫 |
| Character Design | Qi-Bin Chen Feibo Yi |
陳啟發 費伯夷 |
| Animation Photography | Liu Guang-Xing Chen Zheng-Fa Shi Feng-Qi Zhou Jia-Rang Sun Fei-Xia |
劉廣興 陳正發 石鳳岐 周家讓 孫緋霞 |
| Backgrounds | Fangqian Chen Cao Wu Tang Tao Fan Manyun |
陳方千 旭曹 唐濤 范曼雲 |
| Painting Artists | Yu Wing Li Yi Liu Jie Wu Guang Yin Fu-Sheng Chen Chin-Tao Xiemin Yai Liu Chen Fai Zhao Feng Zhu Yong Liu Yi Meng Shen Yi Ming Hu Sixiao Guo Ruisheng Wu Yan Jinfang Bin Cao Zhong Zhang Da Nian |
俞翼如 李毅 劉文頡 吳光 殷復生 陳錦濤 謝敏燕 劉嗔非 趙逢時 朱湧 沈叩鳴 劉軼蒙 胡斯孝 郭瑞生 吳焱 金方斌 曹忠 張大年 |
| Line Drawings | Chen Min Wu Min Fa Sunxiu Pang Yu Wen Wang Wuyue Teng Huang Zhenwen Lu Zhongbo Dai Jiao Ye Lingyun Zhang Liang Qi Sun Song Guo Hengyi Yuan Yongqing Chen Ruihe Chenjin Fan Zhang Jutang Qian Pin Yeng Yu Zu Bung Thinh Liang Yin Shen Zhong Xia Tang Bingde Lu Guang Uig Zhang Tan Zhu Shun Lin Ding Liah Guang Shi Fa Kang Zhao Sheng Fai Qin Qi Xian Yang Jin Xin Feng Bofu |
陳民 吴民發 孫修平 俞文望 吳悅庭 黃振文 陸仲柏 戴覺 葉凌雲 章亮欽 孫松 郭恆義 袁永慶 沈瑞鶴 陳錦範 張菊堂 方品英 俞祖鵬 盛亮賢 沈忠俠 唐秉 陸光儀 張談 朱順麟 丁竇光 石發康 趙盛哉 欽其賢 楊錦新 馮伯富 |
| Coloring | Yuan Huimin Wenghuan Bo Ge Yongliang Wang Zengting Wang Cong Zhou Quan Han Lim Zhen Li Shifen Mi Long Nian Yuan Yu Yao Yuan Zi Chuan Xu Hui Feng Zou Gui Ying Xu Hue Lan Chen Hiyiang Cai Yong Fa Daike Shu Daike Hui Luo Zong |
袁慧敏 翁煥伯 戈永良 王增庭 王從周 全漢 林可珍 李世芬 宓龍年 袁玉瑤 袁子傳 許惠芬 鄒桂英 許蕙蘭 陳慧英 蔡永發 戴克淑 戴克惠 羅粽 |
| Principal Visualized and Directed by | Wan Guchan Wan Laiming |
萬籟鳴 萬古蟾 |
Background
The Wan family twins Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan 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 Studio (1926), 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 flavor in the film - a flavor 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.
By 1940 the film would render past 20,000 frames, using up more than 200 thousand pieces of paper (400ream＝500×400). They shot over 18,000 ft (5,500 m) of footage. And the final piece would contain 7,600 ft (2,300 m) of footage which can be shown in 80 minutes. The Wan brothers also invited the following actors and actresses for sound dubbing (白虹),(严月玲),(姜明),(韩兰根),(殷秀岑). At the time they were at the Xinhua Film Company animation department since it was the only remaining production company left during the period of the Japanese occupation. The manager of the company who help financed the film was Zhang Shankun.
Princess Iron Fan became the first animated feature film to be made in China and the 12th worldwide (although it is only the 9th that still survives, as the films of Argentina's animation pioneer Quirino Cristiani are thought to be lost). Upon completion the film was screened by the Chinese union film company.
Influence
Its influences were far-reaching; it was swiftly exported to wartime Japan (in 1942), inspiring the 16-year-old Tezuka Osamu to become a comics artist and prompting the Japanese Navy to commission Japan's own first feature-length animated film, 1945's Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors (the earlier film Momotaro's Sea Eagles is three minutes shy of being feature-length).[1]
See also
- History of Animation
- History of Chinese Animation
- Chinese Animation
- List of animated feature films
- List of films in the public domain in the United States
References
- ↑ Du, Daisy Yan (2012). "A Wartime Romance: Princess Iron Fan and the Chinese Connection in Early Japanese Animation," in On the Move: The Trans/national Animated Film in 1940s-1970s China, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2012. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Jonathan Clements. (2002). "Chinese Animation". Nickelodeon Magazine.
- Travel Channel China. (2004). "Extensive Info on Wan Brothers". Tieshangongzhu first-length cartoon.
- Daisy Yan Du. (2012). "A Wartime Romance: Princess Iron Fan and the Chinese Connection in Early Japanese Animation," in On the Move: The Trans/national Animated Film in 1940s-1970s China. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 15-60.
External links
- Princess Iron Fan on IMDb
- Princess Iron Fan is available for free download at the Internet Archive
- Princess Iron Fan is available for free download at the Internet Archive (another version)
- Completed English subtitles for the film
- A few stills from the movie