White Snake
Japanese anime is one of the weirdest, most wonderful art forms around. Whether you’re talking about Studio Ghibli or films like “Akira,” “Ghost in the Shell” or “Fist of the North Star,” which I believe was my first anime, it’s something that captures the imagination in fantasy and genre better than any other medium, in a lot of ways. The sensibilities at work in the storytelling are not the same as they are in American animation, and that’s to its benefit. More audiences would do well to get better acquainted with it; maybe we’d expect more from our homegrown animation houses.
“White Snake” is probably the first, non-Ghibli anime I’ve seen in a decade or so, and I’m immediately anxious to delve deeper into the animation studios, and artists, that exist beyond the walls of that iconic animation studio. That doesn’t mean it’s a great example of animation or storytelling, but the voice it carries is so resolutely anime, and the look is so distinctly beautiful, that I could not help but be transfixed by the film.
This film, directed by Amp Wong and Ji Zhao, takes place in a world where snake demons exist at odds with humanity, and snake catchers- led by a General- try to kill them. The film begins with a bond between two sisters, Blanca and Verta, as Blanca is given the task of going to the human village where the General and snake catchers are, and killing the General. She goes into the compound, with her demon powers and a magically-infused hairpin, and nearly succeeds, but is captured before she accomplishes the task, and her memory is erased. She is aided by a young snake catcher named Xuan, whom helps her on her quest to figure out who she is, unaware of her being a snake demon.
The story by Damao has a “Princess Mononoke” feel in the relationship between Blanca and Xuan, how they are caught between their two worlds at battle, and have romantic feelings for one another. It’s a fine riff on that type of fantasy storytelling- I was engaged in the characters and the world being built by Damao, Wong and Zhao, and there’s genuine feeling in the character arcs for Blanca and Xuan and Blanca and Verta. What takes the film to another level is the computer animation, which has the design characteristics of cel animated anime, but with the artistic freedom and flow computer animation allows the artist. It’s a thrilling visual experience. Overall, the story gets more than a little long in the tooth in getting to where it wants to head, but “White Snake” kept me entertained, even if it was just by what I was watching, every step of the way.
