Proud "Shape" and Disappointed "God", Reivew on Big Fish & Begonia

Before its release, "Big Fish and Begonia", which used various topics such as feelings, financing, and bounced tickets as public opinion, carried too much "renown", and with the previous successful precedent of "The Return of the Great Sage" in the word-of-mouth market, it also made people feel Domestic animation has higher and more expectations.

This time, however, the reality may well backfire.

"Big Fish and Begonia" has an astonishingly delicate brushwork. The dragon, phoenix, and crane, which have important positions in Chinese mythology, are full of crimson red and have a strong Chinese style. The Hakka enclosure in Fujian seems to be It also interprets the world view of "the sky is round and the place is round", but none of this can hide the oriental style that permeates the whole movie. Whether it is from the character setting, narrative structure, or even the highly infectious background music, it is easy to find the shadow of Miyazaki's Japanese animation.

Whether it is "salutation" or "learning", these can be used as symptoms and reasons for Chinese animation to embark on the road of revival. But the fatal wound of "Big Fish and Begonia" may still lie in the core story with love as the main line. In such a vast and painstakingly constructed world, the love between sons and daughters seems to have fallen below the audience's expectations. Such an ups and downs plot and flesh-and-blood characters are not as heartwarming as people expect. "Big Fish and Begonia" may capture the Miyazaki-esque "form", but it cannot achieve the "god" that can be compared with Ghibli's work.

But in any case, "Big Fish and Begonia" has taken a long-awaited step, no matter how big or small it is, it is a kind of progress. Maybe this time is a little disappointing, but we should always have expectations for Chinese animation.

Big Fish & Begonia pictures