Lotus Lantern
Encyclopedia
Lotus Lantern is a Chinese animated
feature film
produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio
.
about a boy named Chenxiang. His mother is a goddess and his father is a mortal. His uncle Erlang Shen
, punishes them by killing the father. The mother escapes and gives birth, but the little boy grows up without knowledge of his ancestry. His mother possesses a magical Lotus Lantern whose light can scare away evil. When his uncle, a strict and powerful god, kidnaps Chenxiang, his mother fights to save her son.
Unfortunately, his uncle is victorious and Chenxiang is forced to live in his palace on the sacred mountains. Erlang Shen then imprisons his sister beneath a mountain for her crimes. Although he is quite young, Chenxiang manages to escape from the palace, taking the magical lotus lantern that his mother lost during the battle.
After surviving adventures with many beloved characters of Chinese mythology, Chenxiang finally matures into a courageous boy who must battle his uncle to win his mother's freedom and fall in love at the same time.
s and over 2,000 painted backgrounds. It was the most popular film in China
in 1999.
and Japanese-language
soundtracks
along with the original Mandarin dialogue.
Chinese animation
Chinese animation or Manhua Anime, in narrow sense, refers to animations that are made in China. In broad sense, it may refers to animations that are made in any Chinese speaking countries such as People's Republic of China , Republic of China , Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.- History :The...
feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio
Shanghai Animation Film Studio
Shanghai Animation Film Studio is the animation division of the Shanghai Film Group Corporation in Shanghai, China. It is responsible for the production of Chinese animations.-History:...
.
Plot
The story is based on the traditional Chinese folkloreChinese mythology
Chinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition. These include creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state...
about a boy named Chenxiang. His mother is a goddess and his father is a mortal. His uncle Erlang Shen
Erlang Shen
Erlang Shen , or Erlang is a Chinese God with a third truth-seeing eye in the middle of his forehead.Er-lang Shen may be a deified version of several semi-mythical folk heroes who help regulate China's torrential floods, dating variously from the Qin, Sui and Jin dynasties...
, punishes them by killing the father. The mother escapes and gives birth, but the little boy grows up without knowledge of his ancestry. His mother possesses a magical Lotus Lantern whose light can scare away evil. When his uncle, a strict and powerful god, kidnaps Chenxiang, his mother fights to save her son.
Unfortunately, his uncle is victorious and Chenxiang is forced to live in his palace on the sacred mountains. Erlang Shen then imprisons his sister beneath a mountain for her crimes. Although he is quite young, Chenxiang manages to escape from the palace, taking the magical lotus lantern that his mother lost during the battle.
After surviving adventures with many beloved characters of Chinese mythology, Chenxiang finally matures into a courageous boy who must battle his uncle to win his mother's freedom and fall in love at the same time.
Background
The production took four years and required over 150,000 animation celCel
A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid was used during the first half of the 20th century, but since it was flammable and dimensionally unstable it was largely replaced by cellulose acetate...
s and over 2,000 painted backgrounds. It was the most popular film in China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
in 1999.
DVD
Released in 2004, it contains English-English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Japanese-language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
soundtracks
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
along with the original Mandarin dialogue.