Princess Iron Fan (1941 film)

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Princess Iron Fan
Directed by
Produced by
Distributed byCinema Epoch
Release date
  • 19 November 1941 (1941-11-19) (China)
Running time
73 min
CountryChina

Princess Iron Fan (traditional Chinese: 鐵扇公主; simplified Chinese: 铁扇公主; pinyin: Tiě shàn gōngzhǔ), is the first Chinese animated feature film. It is also considered the first Asian animated feature film. The film is based on an episode of the 16th-century novel Journey to the West. It was directed in Shanghai under difficult conditions in the thick of World War II by Wan Guchan and Wan Laiming (the Wan brothers) and was released on November 19, 1941.

The film later became influential in the development of East Asian animation, including Japanese anime, Vietnamese animation, Korean animation and Chinese animation.[1][2]

Plot[edit]

The story was liberally adapted from a short sequence in the popular Chinese novel Journey to the West. Princess Iron Fan is a main character.

Specifically, the film focused on the duel between the Monkey King and a vengeful princess, whose fan is desperately needed to quench the flames that surround a peasant village.

Creators[edit]

English Production Original Version Crew Romanized
Produced by 監製 S.K Chang (Zhang Shankun) 張善琨
Screenplay by 編劇 Wang Qianbai 王乾白
Screenwriting Consultant 顧問 Chen Yiqing 陳翼青
Sound Recorded by 錄音 Liu Enze
Using Chinatone Technology
劉恩澤
採用中華通錄音機
Musical Director 音樂指揮 Huang Yijun 黃貽鈞
Musical Consultant 音樂顧問 Zhang Zhengfan 章正凡
Composer 作曲 Lu Zhongren 陸仲任
Sound Effects 效果 Chen Zhong 陳中
Editing 剪輯 Wang Jinyi 王金義
Printing 洗印 Xu Hexiang
Lin Xiangfu
Chen Xinyu
許荷香
林祥富
陳鑫甫
Designers 設計 Chen Qifa
Fei Boyi
陳啟發
費伯夷
Photography 攝影 Liu Guangxing
Chen Zhengfa
Zhou Jiarang
Shi Fengqi
Sun Feixia
劉廣興
陳正發
周家讓
石鳳岐
孫緋霞
Backgrounds 背景 Cao Xu
Chen Fangqian
Tang Tao
Fan Manyun
曹旭
陳方千
唐濤
范曼雲
Illustrators 繪稿 Yu Yiru
Li Yi
Liu Wenjie
Wu Guang
Yin Fusheng
Chen Jintao
Xie Minyan
Liu Chenfei
Zhao Fengshi
Zhu Yong
Liu Yimeng
Shen Youming
Hu Sixiao
Guo Ruisheng
Wu Yan
Jin Fangbin
Cao Zhong
Zhang Danian
羽翼如
李毅
劉文頡
吳光
殷復生
陳錦濤
謝敏燕
劉嗔非
趙逢時
朱湧
劉軼蒙
沈叩鳴
胡斯孝
郭瑞生
吳焱
金方斌
曹忠
張大年
Line Drawings 繪線 Chen Min
Wu Minfa
Sun Xiuping
Yu Wenwang
Wu Yueting
Huang Zhenwen
Lu Zhongbo
Dai Jue
Ye Lingyun
Zhang Liangqin
Sun Song
Guo Hengyi
Yuan Yongqing
Shen Ruihe
Chen Jinfan
Zhang Jutang
Fang Pinying
Yu Zupeng
Sheng Liangxian
Shen Zhongxia
Tang Yude
Lu Guangyi
Zhang Tan
Zhu Shunlin
Ding Baoguang
Shi Fakang
Zhao Shengzai
Qin Qixian
Yang Jinxin
Feng Bofan
陳民
吴民發
孫修平
俞文望
吳悅庭
黃振文
陸仲柏
戴覺
葉凌雲
章亮欽
孫松
郭恆義
袁永慶
沈瑞鶴
陳錦範
張菊堂
方品英
俞祖鵬
盛亮賢
沈忠俠
唐秉德
陸光儀
張談
朱順麟
丁竇光
石發康
趙盛哉
欽其賢
楊錦新
馮伯富
Color Artists 者色 Yuan Huimin
Weng Huanbo
Ge Yongliang
Wang Zengting
Wang Congzhou
Quan Han
Lin Kezhen
Li Shifen
Mi Longnian
Yuan Yuyao
Yuan Zichuan
Xu Huifen
Zou Guiying
Xu Huilan
Chen Huiying
Cai Yongfa
Dai Keshu
Dai Kehui
Luo Zong
袁慧敏
翁煥伯
戈永良
王增庭
王從周
全漢
林可珍
李世芬
宓龍年
袁玉瑤
袁子傳
許惠芬
鄒桂英
許蕙蘭
陳慧英
蔡永發
戴克淑
戴克惠
羅粽
Lead Artists 主繪 Wan Laiming
Wan Guchan
萬籟鳴
萬古蟾

Background[edit]

The Monkey

The Wan family twins Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan with their brothers Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan were the first animators in China. After the release of their first "real" cartoon, Uproar in the Studio (1926), they continued to dominate China's animation industry for the next several decades. In the late 1930s, with Shanghai under Japanese occupation, they began work on China's first feature-length animated film. In 1939, the Wan brothers saw Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and set the standard in attempting to create a film of equal quality for the nation's honor.

The film took three years, 237 artists and 350,000 yuan to make. Rotoscoping was used extensively to save money, and the eyes of the live actors are often visible in the faces of the animated characters.

By 1940, the film would render past 20,000 frames, using up more than 200 thousand pieces of paper (400ream=500×400). They shot over 18,000 ft (5,500 m) of footage. And the final piece would contain 7,600 ft (2,300 m) of footage which can be shown in 80 minutes. The Wan brothers also invited the following actors and actresses for sound dubbing (白虹),(严月玲),(姜明),(韩兰根),(殷秀岑). At the time, they were at the Xinhua Film Company animation department since it was the only remaining production company left during the period of the Japanese occupation. The manager of the company who help financed the film was Zhang Shankun.

Princess Iron Fan became the first animated feature film to be made in China. Upon completion the film was screened by the Chinese union film company.

Influence[edit]

Princess Iron Fan's influences were far-reaching;[1] it was swiftly exported to wartime Japan, inspiring the 16-year-old Osamu Tezuka to become a comics artist and prompting the Japanese Navy to commission Japan's own first feature-length animated film, 1945's Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors (the earlier film Momotaro's Sea Eagles is three minutes shy of being feature-length).[1]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "An Animated Wartime Encounter: Princess Iron Fan and the Chinese Connection in Early Japanese Animation". Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University. Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Specifically, it focuses Princess Iron Fan (1941), the first animated feature film made in China and Asia, and how its wartime travel to Japan gave rise to the birth of animated feature films in wartime Japan. It also impacted Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989), the so-called god of modern Japanese manga and anime whose works were shadowed by Princess Iron Fan from the beginning to the end of his career. Princess Iron Fan transformed the early history of Japanese animation, yet its national identity was changed by the journey.
  2. ^ "Princess Iron Fan". Far East Film Festival. China's first feature-length cartoon, the third in the world, exerted an incredible influence on the Asian animation market.... It also inspired the Japanese to make their own animated feature, indirectly pollinating the early anime industry. PRINCESS IRON FAN was cited as a major influence on Japan's greatest manga artist Osamu Tezuka, who entered the field after seeing it as a boy in 1943.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]