ON THE SCREEN - University of Hawaii...ON THE SCREEN The Princess with the Iron Fan A United China Motion Picture Company Production. Full-length cartoon directed and produced by L.M.

ON THE SCREEN

The Princess with the Iron FanA United China Motion Picture Company

Production. Full-length cartoon directed andproduced by L.M. and C.C. Wan.

Intrigued by a huge poster ahowing carica­tures of a monkey, a pig, several queer-lookingmen, and two very beautiful ladies, togetherwitll other strange animals, which advertisedthe first full-length cartoon to be produced inChina, we asked our friend Alfred Zee totake us to the studio that was producing thispicture.

At two-thirty one afternoon we arrived atthe studio of the United Chinn Motion PictureCompany. It is considered to be the largestin China, having brought out many of theforemost Chinese productions during the lastfew years, among them The Family, reviewedin our November issue. It is located in thehuge garden of a sumptuous former privateresidence on Avenue Haig in Shanghai.

Presenting our passes to the gateman, weasked to be directed to the cartoon department,for we had an appointment with the Wanbrothers, China's double edition of Walt Disney.We were met by two Chinese gentlemen intheir thirties, attired, in the best traditionsof Hollywood directors, in turtleneck sweat­ers and plus fours. Together we went to thereception room. The door was locked, but anefficient messenger got us the key in no time.Entering the room we found the main sofaoccupied by a gentleman taking his afternoonnap. It was an e.IlSY matte.r to wake him upand, afte.r his withdrawal, to settle down toour interview.

As we only know a smattering of Chinese,the. contents of the interview are recountedby AJfred Zoe as follows.

The two Chinese Walt Disneys, L.M. andC.C. Wan, have been at work on cartoons since1925, when they first saw and were fascinatedby Max Fleischer's "Inkwell Imp." At thattime they were middle-school students, moreadept in the art classes than in any others.They spent most ot their leisure time plan­ning to produce a Chinese "Inkwell Imp."

After finishing the middle-school depart­ment of Nanking College, they came to Shang­hai to study at the Shanghai College for FineArts, which at that time had just recoveredfrom the uproar against their employing nake.dgirls as models. Their first chance to producecartoons was given them by the motion pictut'edepartment of the Commercial Press, China'sbiggest publishing house. With far fromsuitable equipment they produced several

shorts which were not successful. They thendrifted on to several other motion picturecompanies, where they made between twentyand thirty short cartoons, among them "Riotsin the Studio," a Chinese version of the"Inkwell Imp," "The Camel Dance," featuringa camel, and "The New Life Movement," de­signed to help that movement launched byGeneralissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek.

In these studios, cartoon production wasmore of a side line for the Wan brothersthan their chief assignment. They were usual­ly kept more busy supervising movie sets orarranging art effects.

It was not till Walt Disney had such tremen­dous success with his first full-length cartoon,Snow White and the Seve1l Dwar/8, that Chi­nese producers began seriously to consider theWans' pet idea. Finally it was decided to set upa special cartoon department and to go into theproduction of such features in earnest. Thebrothers now joined the United China MotionPicture Company as chiefs of this new depart­ment, and immediately launched themselvesinto the task of producing the first Chinesefeature-length cartoon, or "ea-tong," as theChinese call it.

As a subject they chose a legend that is atleast as popular among the Chinese as Grimm'sfairy tales are among Westerners. This legend,"Hai Yu Chi" (t!J il iL), "The Journey tothe West," is a fanciful tale founded on fact,as are most Chinese tales. The hist.oric factsin this case are that during the T'ang dynasty(618-917 A.D.) the monk Tang Sheng UN it) wassent from Kaifeng, then the capital of China, toIndia, the "Heaven in the West," to bring baekoriginal copies of the Buddhist scriptures. Incrossing the Himalayas the monk Dlet withconsiderable difficulties, and the story of hisjourney has been woven into an allegory ofhuman endeavor.

In the legend the different traits of humannature are represented by three characters whoaccompany the monk: a monkey-the mischie­vous and witty side of man; a rather oafishmonk-the coarseness and clumsiness in humannature; and a pig-sensuality and greed.

Tang Sheng encounters all kinds of terribleobstacles corresponding to human temptations.His difficulties are usually augmented by themisdeeds of his companions, although themonkey often helps to extricate him. Of coursethey are all equipped with magic instruments,and the monkey and the pig have no difficultyat all in turning themselves into all mannerof shapes. The monkey, for instance, possesses

The Monk Tang and hisdisciples on their longtrek to the \Yes ternParadise

A poster advertisingthe film

The Princess attemptsto drive off the monkeywith her sword

The monkey investigates thefJami ng mountain

"THE PRINCESSWITH THE IRON

FAN"

The buffalo is regaled withwine, woman, and song

Thu pig Iins captured th' fa II a no!carries it gleefully to I is master

"

The monkey rllilies thl..' nativ'$to fight the uuffal

Plaster models of SOlllC of t.he eharact.cl's of th movie:\Iovement.s of the Pl'incess nrecopied from a living mod,,1

ON THE SCREEN 71

a club weighing about 120,000 pounds. Thisclub can be reduced at will, however, to anysize desired, and the monkey usually carriesit, shrunk to the size of a needle, in the lobeof his ear.

Out of the innumerable episodes of thelegend, the Wan brothers chose one whichthey felt would have the strongest appeal toa modern audience. In telling the story theyhave given it a slight twist, putting theemphasis not so much on the Buddhist signif­icance as on the idea that co-operation andinternal unity are required to overcome greatdit'ficulties and accomplish a big task.

Briefly the plot of the cartoon is as follows.On their way to the West in search of theBuddhist scriptures, the monk Tang Shengand his disciples reach a place burren of anygrowth. The temperature is oppressively warm.From the natives they learn that there is amountain a few miles ahead which is occu­pied by a monster. Flames leap out all overthe mountain. III the immediate vicinity it hasnot rained for years and all the land lies waste.

There is only one way to subdue the flames.In a mountain near by there is a palace builtin a great cavern where dwells a beautifulyoung princess. She possesses a magic fan.If someone were to use this fan on the flam­ing mountain, the fires would be put out im­mediately, rain would fall on the parchedearth, and plants would grow again. This isthe "Princess with the Iron Fan,"

The first emissary sent to borrow the fanis the oafish monk. He is a tough fellow,utterly devoid of tact. The Princess refuseshis request in no uncertain terms. The pig istoo lazy to go, so the duty falls on the mon­key. The Princess realizes that the monkey isher enemy. She draws her sword and lashesout at him. without effect, as the monkey'sbody is immune to ordinary weapons. Hardpre~sed, the Princess produces her fan, notto lend it to lhe monkey but to fan himjust once. The fan releases so terrific astorm that the diminutive monkey is blownto the .. Border of the Earth." There hemeets an old friend who gives him a pearlwith the miraculous power of stopping allwinds. With the pearl in his pocket, hereturns to the cave-palace of the Princess.

Discovering that her fan is now of no availagainst the monkey, the Princess locks herselfin. Undaunted, the monkey transforms him­self into a tiny insect and slips in through acrack in the door. He finds her in her innerchambers enjoying a Clip of wine. Divinginto an air bubble in the wine, he is swal­lowed by the Princess. In her stomach heperforms a thousand and one acrobatic stunts,till the Princess, now aware of the cause ofher sudden stomach-ache, yields to his demand.She gives him a fan, and the monkey leavestriumphantly to conquer the mountain of fire.

But, alas, it is not the real fan. As hefans the mountain, the flames only shoothigher and higher.

Now the lazy pig wakes up and remembersthat the Princess is none other than the wifeof his friend the bulfalo who has now allOattained supernatural powers. On his way tothe buffalo's cave-palace he meets an almond­eyed beauty, but his coarse attempts atflirtation frighten the belle and she rushes toher doting master, the bulfalo. Angered byher story, the buffalo flatly refuses to helpthe pig and threatens to give him a hiding.

Beating a hasty retreat, the pig steals the"gulden-eyed beast," a dragon that serves asthe buffalo's mount. Turning himself into thebuffalo, the pig rides straight to the Princessand, in his d.isguise, obtains the genuine fan.Meanwhil<" however, the rcal buffalo has dis­covered the theft of his mount and turnshimself into the monkey, in whicll shape heintercepts the pig. Proudly the pig handsover the fan to what he believes to be themonkey, who then reveals himself as the realbuffalo.

The three disciples are downhearted andrendy to give up, but not so their master.the monk Tang Sheng, who el..lliains to themthat the reason for their failure is that allattempts so far have been made individually.He urges them to a concerted effort, gainingat the same lime the support of the poverty­stricken population. In a grand finale theymanage in united endeavor to vanquish boththe Princess and the buffalo. They obtainthe fan and put out the flaming mountainonce and for all.

Such is the story, every character in whichis familiar to Chinese audiences. The Wanbrothers worked on it for three years, althoughthe actual production took only si~-teen

months. This in itself is a long period,inasmuch as most of the Chinese "superproductions" take no more than a few weeksto produce.

The process used in making this "ea-tong"is a somewhat rudimentary replica of thatused by the Disney studios. Clay models ofnil the characters were first made. This partof the job was handled by the Wan brothersthemselves. About 300,000 pictures were re­quired to produce the 7,500 feet of !ilmwhich reached the screen. Each picture is acomposite of two or three sketches, one show­ing the background and the others the "actors."As these sketches are done on transparentcelluloid plates they may be piled one on topof the other to form a composite and completescene.

The Wan brothers deplored the fact thatthey could not produce their film in techni­color. There is no studio in China, either inHongkong, Chungking, or Shanghai, which hasthe equipment for producing color films. Afew hundred feet of colored film were onceincluded in a "super production," shot inShanghai. The negative, however, had to berushed to Hollywood for processing and print­ing and back again to Shanghai for insertionin the black and white picture.

72 THE XXth CENTURY

"We haven't given up hope yet of producinga technicolol' 'ca-tong,''' the Wan brothersassured us.

We were then taken to the cartoon depart­ment of the studio. We found it to be rathercramped, the kitchen and servants' quarters ofthe former private house having been convertedto make room for it. As the picture waspractically completed at the time of our visit,we only found a few girls working in onesmall room, tracing some additional scenes.The celluloid plates showing the action againsta black and white background are painted inshades of green, which, we were told, whenphotographed come out in different shades ofgray, thus giving an illusion of depth.

Although the quarters were not extensive(every foot of floorspace was used, rows oftracing desks being built in even in thecorridors and on the steps of the narrowstaircase), they seemed quite comfortable. Thetracing desks all llave built-in lights and glasstops, and, although small, still have room forthe inevitable cup of tea. Here an army of200 artists worked in two shifts for sixteenmonths.

The ~mera, which is mounted in what wasformerly the kitchen, is an ingenious construc­tion built along the lines of the specialHollywood equipment. Most of the technicaldetails, however, for instance the method ofmoving the camera up and down for close-upsetc., were worked out by the Wan brothers.

On leaving the studio we felt much likeRobert Benchley in The Reluct(tnt D1·agon.We had our hands full of casts of the claymodels, children's toys based on charactersand scenes from The Princes8 wUh the IronFan, and a batch of photographs which wehope our readers will enjoy.

Yet it was with a slight feeling of ap­prehension that we went to see the premie'l'eof the cartoon. This apprehension was basedon three counts. First of all, never havingseen any Chinese cartoon we were a bitnervous about the technical side of it, fearingthat it would probably be much like earlyAmerican 01' European attempts, where onereel was usually as much as the eyes couldstand. There was the question of the theme,an old Chinese legend, which might, and thenagain might not at all appeal to the Westerner.And finally from the advertising we knewthat two important characters of the storywere beautiful girls. We remembered thatthe one weakness in an otherwise so masterlya picture as Snow White were the non-carica­tured figures of Snow White herself and thePrince. Somehow in their movements thesehuman figures were unnatural and almostirritating in their awkwardness.

Our first pleasant surprise was that intechnique the picture was well up to Holly­wood standards. We only regretted that itwas not in technicolor. On the other band wewere not at all bothered by its being black

and white, just as one is not bothered whenone sees a black and white photoplay after atechnicolor feature.

The story has just as strong an appeal toforeigners as it seems to have to the Chinese.However, we would advise those who do notunderstand Chinese to get acquainted withthe plot before seeing the picture, asotherwise they might be confused by thoseparts where some of the characters turnthemselves into others.

And finally we were amazed at the techni­cal handling of the human figures, especiallyof the two beautiful girls, which was defi­nitely superior to anything we have seen thathas come out of Hollywood. Perhaps it isthat the more stylized Chinese stage geatureslend themselves better to the medium of acartoon than our casual movements. At anyrate at no time during this picture did wehave that feeling of uneasiness that comesover us when watching "straight" figures inHollywood cnrtOODl:l.

The appeal of every cartoon lies in its hu­mor, and The Princess 1vith the Iron FUllshould rank high in this respect, In the treat­ment of the humorous situations, as well asin the cha!'acteristics of many of the figures,Hollywood's influence is felt strongly. Ofcourse there are standard comical effectswhich appear over and over again even in theWalt Disney series, for the very reason thatthey are reliable laugh-getters, just as in lheold days hardly any slapstick comedy wascomplete without a pie-throwing sequence.There are quite a few of these stand-bys inthis picture, but the Wan brothers have alsothought up many original and very amusingideas of their own. We were particularly de­lighted by the transformation scenes - forinstance, when the monkey (who, by the way,is very well observed in his simian movements)gradually turns himself into an insect, pullinghis wings around him like a coat and draw­ing spare legs out of his pockets and anten­nae out of his forehead. Or the scene wherethe pig, stumped for a moment as to how toget the huge dragon out of the stable of hisfoe without attracting too much attention,solves the problem brilliantly by simply de­flating the monster by letting the air out ofthe tip of his tail and rolling him up like ncarpet. Once outside it is an easy matter toblow the dragon up again like a balloon.

From every point of view the Wan brothersare to be congratulated on a first-rate andvery entertaininl: production. We hear thatthey are already well under way on theirsecond full-length cartoon, which we lookforward to seeing, now not only without ap­prehension but with pleasurable anticipation.

A Hollywood producer might smile at theapparent inadequacies of most of the technicalequipment with which the film was produced.Yet the result obtained is one more exampleof the Chinese ability to produce a maximumwith a minimum.-V.