Tale of a white snake

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Anime movie
title Tale of a white snake
Original title 白蛇 伝
transcription Hakujads
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 1958
Studio Toei animation
length 78 minutes
genre Fantasy , romance
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Taiji Yabushita
script Taiji Yabushita, Sōichi Yashiro
music Ikeda Masayoshi

Tale of a White Snake ( Japanese 白蛇 伝 , Hakujaden ) is an anime film from 1958. It was produced by Toei Animation and is the first full-length Japanese animation film in color. The plot is based on the Chinese fairy tale Bai She Zhuan .

action

Boy Xu Xian buys a white snake at the market because he likes it very much. But since everyone tells him the snake is evil, he exposes it again. The white snake, who actually has magical powers, turns into a beautiful young woman, Bai Niang, one day in a thunderstorm. She transforms a fish into her servant, Shao Qing. Together they find Xu Xian again, who has meanwhile become a young man and is friends with the two pandas "Panda" and "Mimi". Bai Niang and Xu Xian fall in love, but priest Fa Hai realizes the nature of Bai Niang and fears that she is an evil spirit. After the two pandas and Shao Qing stole something from the state treasury, Fa Hai sees the blame on the white snake and has Xu Xian banished.

Panda and Mimi also find him in the distant city to which Xu Xian was exiled. But there is also a band of other animals in the city who live from theft. After a fight, they join the two pandas. When Xu Xian and Bai Niang find each other again at the same time, the priest intervenes again and engages the white snake in a magical battle, which it loses. Xu Xian dies when Bai Niang appears to him as a ghost when he is leaving and he falls over a cliff.

In order to save her lover, the white snake visits the Dragon King. In exchange for her magical powers, she receives the Flower of Life from him, with which she can revive Xu Xian. Meanwhile, Fa Hai took the dead man to his temple on an island to be kept, and the animals followed him. As Bai Niang approaches the island, he uses magic to repel it. With the help of Shao Qing and her uncle Wels, the animals can bring the flower of life to Xu Xian. When he is resurrected, Fa Hai also believes that Bai Niang gave her magic to Xu Xian's life. The two lovers can become happy and the animals stay with Fa Hai.

Production and publication

The film was directed by Taiji Yabushita at Toei Animation . The script was written by Taiji Yabushita and Sōichi Yashiro , the music is by Ikeda Masayoshi. Kazuhiko Okabe and Kiyoshi Hashimoto were responsible for the artistic direction. Speakers were Hisaya Morishige and Mariko Miyagi .

The film was released in Japanese cinemas on October 22, 1958. In 1959 it was shown in the children's film category of the Venice Film Festival and in 1961 it was shown in American cinemas. The first German publication followed on April 1, 1983 as a television broadcast by ZDF . In 2010 this version was released on DVD by SchröderMedia. In addition, the film has been translated into French, Spanish, Polish and Italian, among others.

Reception and meaning

The film received praise at the Venice Film Festival, but was not very successful in the USA.

Toei Animation began a series of successful films with Telling a White Snake . This meant a new beginning for Japanese animation after World War II and a change in style from the studio aesthetics of pre-war films to a style influenced by the manga . Daniel Kothenschulte describes this as the "renaissance" and "second classic" of the anime. The film influenced later works with “its eventful dramaturgy and the fantastic, imaginative plot” . Elements from Disney films would be combined with those from Chinese films. Hayao Miyazaki was not only influenced by film, but also made to want to produce films himself.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition , p. 478.Berkeley 2006, Stone Bridge Press, ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5 (English)
  2. ↑ German Film Institute - DIF / German Film Museum & Museum of Applied Arts (ed.): Ga-netchû! Das Manga Anime Syndrom , p. 61. Henschel Verlag, 2008.
  3. ↑ Patrick Drazen: Anime Explosion! - The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation , p. 255. Stone Bridge Press, 2003.

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