DA YU HAI TANG

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ONA AdventureDa Yu Hai Tang
MOVIE AdventureDa Yu Hai Tang 2

REVIEWS

• 

  tRansD

  100/100
  An effort worthy of a fable "China", full of images that often dazzle the eye.

  Best one can make of this stunning and frequently incomprehensible fable, “Big Fish & Begonia” tells of dolphin-girl Chun who sacrifices her immortality to rescue a human boy, traveling back and forth between the world of men and the mystical realm of “the Others,” which are connected by enormous whirlpools. That dynamic is further complicated by Chun’s childhood friend Qiu, who is willing to trade his own life for her benefit, resulting in an elaborate supernatural love triangle between human beings and those with magical powers. As it is, “Big Fish & Begonia” throws open the door to a parallel dimension loosely based on Daoist proverbs and descriptions found in China’s ancient “Classic of Mountains and Seas.” Early on, an elderly narrator attempts to explain a history of the world in which the souls of human beings are embodied as “great fish” … except when the humans misbehave and are somehow transformed into underworld rats. Life is relatively peaceful for the Others, who look forward to the day they are allowed to venture over into the human world, although they’re strictly advised not to interact with the humans — which is exactly what Chun does, of course, approaching a fishing boat in her new form, as a brilliant red dolphin. Feeling some sort of connection with (or perhaps just a curiosity toward) this stranger, Chun follows him to shore, swimming in for a closer look. In doing so, she gets caught in a net, and the young fisherman must swim out to rescue her. The courageous human dies in the process, but his gesture inspires Chun to seek out various supernatural entities with whom she can bargain for his life. Weirdly, in the human world, Chun takes fish form, whereas in her native domain, she appears as a girl, while the dead man is reborn as a white fish with a single horn in the center of his forehead (technically, she’s a dolphin, while he’s a whale of some sort, but why quibble when it’s all make-believe anyway?). One of the things that differentiates the story of "Big Fish & Begonia" from those counted in the United States and Japan is the lack of an openly evil villain. Here, natural - or supernatural, circumstances such as snakes on the heads and giant winds that extend to the sky - represent the greatest threat, but instead of thinking about danger, "Big Fish & Begonia" celebrates the instinct of the response characters in a selfless way Chun, Kun and Qiu are constantly offering their own lives in exchange for the others, and in doing so, they defy the notion of mortality. Theirs is an incredibly affirmative journey, which unfolds like a waking dream on the way to a state of transcendental happiness. It could almost be the myth of the creation of a religion lost a long time ago, which is appropriate, considering how the belief in potential was previously not tapped into Chinese animation. This marvelous and mind-blowing animated feature surpasses anything cartoon China has produced before in terms of sheer beauty, even as it defies interpretation. Perhaps such a film is best experienced in a state of delirious semi-consciousness, in which its mind-bending imagery is free to wash over the imagination in strange and surreal ways.

  My personal score is 100, for the beautiful animation, the landscapes that are shown and the moral that leaves.

  
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• 

  JTurner82

  97/100
  Hauntingly gorgeous and mesmerizing Chinese smash hit feature.

  The first thing I should mention about Big Fish and Begonia is that it is visually stunning. I do not recall seeing many Chinese animated productions (although I wouldn't be surprised if I had inadvertently stumbled upon one without realizing it), but this is one of the most visually impressive I've seen from the country. Like a magnet, it seduces you from the first frame and keeps you entranced for all 100 minutes. In a way, this film reminded me a bit of Laika's recent Kubo and the Two Strings. That film, while not a tightly plotted story, was nonetheless so visually stimulating that one could not help but be glued to their seats throughout. Big Fish and Begonia is the same way.

  Describing the plot, it's sort of a mixing pot of The Little Mermaid with shades of Spirited Away and Chinese mythology. Basically, this film imagines an "alternate world" way beneath the ocean -- a sort of mythological Chinese flavored kingdom whose inhabitants are some sort of humanoid "spirits" with powers who are responsible for guarding the balance of nature. One of its residents, 16-year-old Chun, participates in a sort of "coming of age" ceremony, in which she is transformed into a crimson colored dolphin and swims to the surface world. Here she comes face to face with a human boy and his little sister. But the visit turns tragic when she is trapped in a fisherman's net. The boy courageously rescues her, only to drown. Feeling responsible, Chun travels beyond the boundaries of her village to some sort of one-eyed demon (Lengpo, the Lady of Souls), where she strikes a Faustian bargain. The boy will be reborn as a dolphin, whom she will have to tame and grow until he is old enough to return to hid world. But the price is two-fold. First, she must give up half of her life force to revive the boy in question (whom she names Kun), and whatever pain he receives, she'll receive too. The second and more dangerous outcome involves unnatural disasters such as rainstorms, maelstroms, and even snow which threaten to destroy her world's existence. Only her closest friend Qiu, who secretly harbors a crush on her, might be able to set things right.

  As mentioned, Big Fish and Begonia is absolutely breathtaking to look at. The film is also rich with metaphorical imagery, particularly when talking about matters such as life and death. In one scene, for instance, when an old man dies, he is reborn as a tree. His similarly deceased wife, incidentally, is some sort of peacock who comes to rest on the tree in question. In terms of character development, Big Fish and Begonia isn't very heavy on it, but Qiu, oddly enough, emerges as the most interesting of the characters. When we first meet him he appears to be somewhat mischievous and playful. But he also has a very serious dedicated side to him, and ultimately goes to great lengths to help the person dearest to him. The rest of the cast don't stand out as much, but with the possible exception of one fairly negligible potential baddie (who lives in a rat-infested sewer), nobody comes across as truly unsympathetic. Only issue is that there are a plethora of minor characters who only have about five minutes of screentime, to the point where we don't get to know them as well, but that's my only issue.

  The dub by Studiopolis is well done for the most part, with no noticeably bad performances, although I DID detect some mistimed lines at least in the first half hour -- I do find it jarring to see a character's mouth start flapping only for no sound to come out until the second one, and this unfortunately sometimes happens in the beginning. Thankfully, this problem disappears in the second half, and other than that, as mentioned, everyone plays their roles well. Stephanie Sheh and Johnny Yong Bosch, in particular, do great turns as the lead characters, Chun and Qiu, respectively.

  Perhaps the best way to describe this film is that it is more visual poetry rather than a cohesive plot, but it also offers a sincere heart that somehow manages to win the viewer over. The ending is also bittersweet and will surely wrench tears. (I know I was crying toward the end!) Directors Lian Xuan and Zhang Chun spent more than 12 years(!) working on this film, most of it being a series of starts and stops. According to the making-of-featurette, this film started off as a wildly successful 7 minute short made in Flash, but acquiring funds for expanding it into a feature proved problematic, and nearly disbanded the animation studio B & J. So what saved the day? Crowdfunding, that's what. The amount of interest from said crowdfunds prompted a Chinese distributor to take a chance and fund the film. Xuan and Chun's lengthy labor of love was greatly rewarded: the film was a smash hit in China, the second most successful animated film over there

  I wouldn't say Big Fish and Begonia reaches the echelons of say, Studio Ghibil, but it doesn't have to. If you're an animation fan and want to see something this breathtaking and emotional, you can't go wrong with this one. Every second of it will have you nailed to your seat.

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• 

  milkbao

  65/100
  大鱼海棠 - EPIC VISUALS AND THE OST WAS AMAZING！

  The art was AWESOME, some scenes really added to the atmosphere of the movie, the few cgi scenes didn't really add to anything and made it a bit worse but the animation was clean and portrayed the story line. It told the tale of a young girl that lived in the heaven realm and how her actions affected other people. I would say a must-watch for the visuals but you may be disappointed if you were looking for a more profound story line.
  The movie flowed quite well, and it some of the characters reminded me of characters from Spirited Away e.g. the soul keeper. The fantasy elements and artwork was one of the best features of the movie and the little mice were very cute!

  The main character was accompanied by her childhood friend, Qiu and he was one of my most favourite characters throughout that movie, he progressed immensely and was one of the reasons i carried on with the movie.
  Chun, the mc, annoyed me a great deal due to her lack of understanding and self-awareness, despite making actions to help one person she didn't realise she was harming others in the process and i think that was the main message of the story.

  The only reason that i finished this movie was because of the studio ghibli elements - the animation was breathtaking however the story line didn't really align with the mc characte. The mc didn't really learn anything from her mistakes, even when countless people sacrificed for her she was still naive and didn't really progress as a character.

  !!SPOILERS!!

  Even though so many people got hurt because of her actions, Chun still didn't understand the severity of her actions and that was so annoying! Man she pissed me off so badly. Her grandpa perished and so did Qiu and after that she still wanted to be with the human boy that she didn't even know the name of damn girl WHAT
  The art was so beautiful and the movie would have been better IF SHE WASN'T SO ANNOYING . Despite all this, i am very biased due to looking forward to a fantasy/romance donghua and ending up with a naive little girl that caused the death of her bestfriend. I think i was very sad that Qiu was always stuck in the friend zone all because of a guy with a flute. QIU BEST BOY. If anything i'm only ranting about the lack of story telling haha and relationships. The family dynamics were also very strange but were not mentioned that clearly, despite all this the grandpa seemed to be that 'generic' wise, old grandpa and he was very likable.

  Key points:

  • the soul keeper was cool
  • the mice were cute
  • Plot was lacking
  • Qiu was the real mvp
  • could almost have been studio ghibli vibes
  • visuals were very cool
  • the tree was so goddamn beautiful
  • the water animation was very nice
  • VAs were very emotional
  • ost was GREAT 周深 yyds
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