White Snake [DVD]

I was shocked to discover this white snake prequel; First thing that draw me to this movie is the subtle facial expressions of Blanca (White Snake); There are so many complex and evolving thoughts in her mind; I am glad director did not use overly-exaggerated facial expressions of typical 3D animated characters but instead focused on her micro expressions; This matches well with her character: shy, fragile but not weak; Ah Xuan has likable and positive character, which is a nice deviation from Xu Xian, his afterlife in legend of white snake; This prequel intends to explain why white snake unconditionally loves Xu Xian 500 years later.The pictures, color, music are breathtakingly beautiful and the blu-ray's rendering of picture and sound are top notch; The fight scenes with high priest's student are some of the best I have seen; well-paced, beautiful martial arts, very creative use of light and shadows, engaging sound track of traditional Chinese and modern instruments;The sound effect has a lot of details, for example the foot steps of Dudou (Ah Xuan's dog, name means lady's bodice / undershirt) when Blanca wakes up in the morning; the sound of debris falling and reached the ground when Verta challenged Ah Xuan's motive on top of the tower; This sound effect gives audience a sense of tower's height; On the other end of spectrum, the sound effect packs a lot of dynamics and impacts, your sub-woofers will be very happy. The original motion picture sound tracks by Guo Haowei are available on Qobuz; I am glad I bought all 22 sound tracks; It reminds me of the scenes of the movie, but also carry some sense of completeness; Judging from the length of the sound tracks, I suspect some of the scenes are reduced / deleted. Many of the musics are variations from the main song "why bother", the composer did excellent job pushing the emotion limits when it needs to be; The sound tracks are well recorded, it has very deep sound stage, well separated instruments, clear and warm highs and mids, punchy dynamics packed with lot of low ends.Speaking of the story, including the PG-13 part, the more I watch this movie, the more I can put myself in shoes of two young hearted characters; As the fox spirit put it, humans, god, demons all want to eliminate you; It becomes understandable for their actions / reactions; Based upon legend, white snake has the root of dragon and thus she is very different from rest of them; She is also very talented and might be deemed as threat / outsider to her master, that maybe why she was sent to the suicidal mission at beginning of the story, against her will, right after she completed her transformation to human. After little bit digging, I learned that the lyrics of songs came from poems of Tang and Song dynasties; May have appeared to be pretty blank at first but actually these lyrics carry some very deep meaning that match well with scenes and emotions throughout the movie; The production team has definitely done their homework; I do get emotional every time I watch this movie! There are many good story leads in the movie; I wish the movie was a bit longer thus the story go to a deeper level beyond romances and tragedies; The movie did touch upon some social and economic issues; The life of snake catchers apparently was inspired by a famous article of that time revealing the harsh taxation and living conditions for the people; A brief portray of rich and poor in the city, of which both main characters' humane sides were shown; however, the movie didn’t go further as Princess Mononoke or Howl’s Moving Castle, two of my favorite studio Ghibli movies, in conveying some underlying meanings of humanities / dualities. I think that would make this movie more complete. On the flip side, since it is rather short, I don't mind watching it over and over!I first watched it on Amazon Prime rental and it has English dub, which I think is done superbly; I am thrilled the blu-ray has original Mandarin dialogues, but it does not come with mandarin sub-title. This along with Big Fish and Begonia are two of the most unforgettable animations from Chinese studios; Bravo!

Great as a movie & great as a foreign film.

Originally I was afraid it would turn out as nonsense like the Jet-li film "Sorcerer and the White Snake." But this very well done in comparison. This is a superior film. I find the overarching theme very beautifully done and showing the power that has. Love the battles. The magic involved and the shape-shifting. It's messages that love knows no borders. Evil comes in all forms from our fears in-adequacy. Its not what others define you as important, but how you define yourself. You are who you choose to be and who you choose to remain true and faithful to. Though i do not believe in the concepts of reincarnation, ending of being by embracing and becoming nothing, or ending of the soul. Though overall the theme of universal eternal love never stops being relevant now, then, and times yet to come. So overall I give it a 4 1/2 star rating and would defiantly recommend to friends and family.

loved the movie if u have kids they will love it has a really good story

Enjoyed watching this

Was ok, but probably not going to watch it again.

I just got this last night and I could not wait to watch it. China has been upping its game when it comes to Chinese animation, with Big Fish and Begonia being the last outing I watched. White Snake serves as a prequel to the Chinese legend we all know and love. The characters are well written and the animation is breathtaking. The main character Blanca (White Snake) is a sympathetic protagonist that struggles to do the right thing. I enjoyed her as much as my favorite Disney Princesses, Mulan and Merida, who are also strong independent female characters. I enjoyed Verta (Green Snake) as well, as the misunderstood bad girl. I also love the music, it compliments the beautiful animation perfectly. All in all, I would highly recommend this for anyone who is a fan of Chinese mythology, film, and animation. Not for kids under the age of 12 though, as there is a rather steamy scene midway through the film.

I have read a couple comments, regarding the animation quality not being as good as Pixar, or Disney. But that is not true, it is just different. This was perhaps one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. Today's animations through Disney are focused on driving home agenda, over story. This is all story, a classic story about love and what it can overcome.The world building is incredible, I mean the beauty of it. The characters are likeable, and well done. The battle scenes were epic, and all building up to a stunning end battle, that will first get your heart pounding, then threaten to break it, then wrap it up with hope. I haven't really gotten a chance to see animated movies about China myths, but if this is an example of one, they are just....stunning. I am looking forward to more in the future.