Erzählung einer weißen Schlange (1958)

Erzählung einer weißen Schlange: Directed by Taiji Yabushita. With Hisaya Morishige, Mariko Miyagi, Virginia Blackman, Lisa Lu. The adventures of a cute little panda, a dragon god and an evil serpent.

“I first came across this title reading an Wikipedia article about the history of anime, as well as an Animatorium article on u0026quot;The 15 Best Animations Youu0026#39;ve Never Heard Ofu0026quot;. It took some time before I finally checked it out online just a few months ago in March and I saw it again only last month. I saw and heard only the original Japanese version, and plan to see the English dub as well eventually. Before discovering this, I had never heard of the Chinese folktale under its original title, u0026quot;Hakujaden: Tale of the White Serpentu0026quot;, so this adaptation is the first one Iu0026#39;ve seen. But itu0026#39;s one of the hallmarks of color anime films. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePrior to the modern anime that followed from the late 1960s onward, itu0026#39;s enchanting how those are worlds apart from the more Disney-esque anime of the formative decades and had yet to find their own distinctive identity that set it apart from Western animation. As for the technical aspects of this, theyu0026#39;re almost perfect. Particularly Iu0026#39;m talking about the animation, and even more specially, when the characters speak. It seems that, at times, when theyu0026#39;re heard speaking, thereu0026#39;s no mouth/lip movement. Aside from one instance in which one characteru0026#39;s lines are heard but thereu0026#39;s no mouth movement possibly because thereu0026#39;s an instance of thinking involved instead, it couldu0026#39;ve been done better. Next thing to mention, the characters. I enjoyed all of them: The two heroes, Xu Xian and Bai Niang, Bai Niangu0026#39;s mistress, Shao-Chin, Panda and Mimi the Red Panda, all of them. Then the music, as nice as the Chinese-style songs are, what caught me the most was the tune that one of the pigs plays. It sounded familiar to me and I might have heard it before, but I canu0026#39;t think of the artist who originally performed it at the moment. The colors, the backgrounds, everything else about it is great. Since the previous, two, other reviewers went over the plot of this, Iu0026#39;ll just talk a little about whatu0026#39;s included in it and one of my favorite parts. One aspect of it features the supernatural, as in the case of Bai Niang and her powers. There are plenty of good and funny moments, like when a drunk guy sees Bai Niang in her snake form and he thinks sheu0026#39;s a hallucination. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI wonu0026#39;t say anymore about it than what has already been said. Iu0026#39;ll just let all those who havenu0026#39;t already seen it, watch it for themselves. Itu0026#39;s well worth it and not to be skipped, love it.”