By Gene Ching                

We’re used to the term ‘anime’ for Japanese animation, but there’s a new global power in animation emerging and it’s called ‘donghua.’ Donghua (动画) is Chinese animation; It literally means ‘moving painting’ or ‘moving drawing’. Last January, the donghua movie NE ZHA 2 shattered the bamboo ceiling to become the world’s fifth highest-grossing film of all time. At this writing, it’s still in the Top 10, standing strong at #6 with a $2.2 billion worldwide gross. And it’s the only Asian film in the Top 50. Everything else is from Hollywood.

And there’s plenty more where that came from. China’s donghua industry is prolific, churning out new movies at a dizzying rate. Standing out now is the latest donghua epic, ALL WISHES COME TRUE. The Chinese title of this film is Ba Xian (八仙) or ‘Eight Immortals.’ It’s about the beloved heroes from Daoist legend, well known to any student of Chinese culture as well as any martial artist because there are many homages within traditional Kung Fu. ALL WISHES COME TRUE is a dazzling epic, a retelling of the creation story of the Eight Immortal for a new generation through cutting edge animation designed for the big screen. It’s a family friendly film, full of laughs, action, magic, loyalties, and most of all, heart.

ALL WISHES COME TRUE is produced by Pearl Studio, who brought us other donghua movies like KUNG FU PANDA 3 (2016), ABOMIDABLE (2019) and OVER THE MOON (2020). On Labor Day, we caught up with the writer and director of ALL WISHES COME TRUE, Mu Zhengyang, along with the CEO of Pearl Studio, Catherine Yin, on the first ever in-person Chinese movie promotional tour of the western world. Mu spoke through a translator. Yin spoke perfect English.

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers

GC: I'm with KungFuMagazine. Our main influence is martial arts. So the first thing I want to ask you about is getting Su Hang as your action director.

MZ: So let me just say that in the beginning, we used another fightmaster called Huang Chengxi. He laid a very good foundation for the design of the action scene. But as we developed and progressed into the production, we found that we had a higher demand in the design of the action scenes.

And it so happened that THE SHADOW’S EDGE was screening in China. And after watching it, we found that the fast-paced and the younger cadence of the action very much fit what we needed for our project. So we reached out and we clicked just like that. Everything just fell into place. Su Hang agreed to do it. That's how it happened.

GC: How does fight choreography work with animation exactly? How did you turn Su Hang’s vision into animation?

MZ: Okay, so Su Hang came into this project with a complete open mindedness, so because of that, he was able to detach from the mentality of the traditional Kung Fu fight scenes and martial arts design. And because also it wasn't real people and there's no physical limitation in what he could do. So he went in very gung ho with a super high enthusiasm. He came in with pretty much of a free mind and that which empowered him to do a lot of things.

As we progressed, what he did was per my request, per my vision. He created multiple designs of the action models or presentations, and we would pick from those. All of them were very highly, highly imaginative. And then we would eventually pick one to meet my specific needs. He had a hell of a fun time doing this.

GC: How do you feel about the state of Chinese animation right now in the global perspective?

MZ: I think we are currently already very highly competitive. In one out of five box offices, sellers will be a Chinese production. I think we are very capable in production and in technical aspects. And in a lot of regards in these two areas, we're already number one in the world.

I think the only thing that we need to work on, especially for young directors, is for them to keep telling stories from our tradition, from our folklore, to keep paving the path for the younger, for other generations and in an effort to push our culture into a global market and to establish a brand new fan base. I think there is a threshold in presenting our culture because there's a mysterious part of it and there is like a margin of it that needs to be filled. So I think this is what the important task for us as cultural artists.

CY: Just one minor adjustment [to that translation]. In terms of technology, I don't think Chinese animation technology is #1 yet. What the director said originally was in the first tier - top tier - but not #1.

GC: I agree with that. Chinese animation has come a long way.

So that leads me to another question: I know the myth and all these stories about the Eight Immortals. I see them and I know, but most Americans do not. Do you feel there's any obstacle in that for western audiences? Because the movie's a lot, referencing other legendary figures like Yang Jian and Sun Wukong.

MZ: Characters from the Chinese mythology like Yang Jian and Sun Wukong are very familiar to the Chinese audience. But facing the same obstacle, I would say that the Eight Immortals also is not very familiar to the Chinese audience. So there we have the same obstacle here.

To enable more Chinese audience to be familiarized with the background, we will keep developing. After laying the foundation like this, we will keep developing the peripheral stories and the background stories in order to first consolidate the familiarity of our own audience in China and then to push it outward globally to establish a wider fan base with that foundation established.

CY: I don't think you actually need to know who Yang Jian is. American audiences, as long as they get the idea that he's a very strong and powerful god and seems invincible. But he's a protagonist, a strong opponent.

Of course, it helps if you have some cultural background and know who's who. But as long as in this film, I think most people I've also talked to - some new friends who are not Chinese or Asian - and they get the idea. And if they like the story, they will definitely go to explore and try to do some research who these guys are.

And in the future, they will know more.

I think what works better is that there's no pre-established familiarity necessary to like the work with the characters. As long as they like the work - they identify with the characters - everything will come naturally.

GC: Cinematically, we have film series like the MCU, various franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek, and what have you. Harry Potter. Cinematic universes. Do you see this as a start of a new animation franchise? Light Chaser Animation Studios has been trying to do their franchise based on the Investiture of the Gods. Is this a launching pad?

MZ: I think so. Yes.

CY: Depends. Based on the very positive feedback that we have got from the audiences, that we're definitely more interested in working on the sequels and other durative works and about the Eight Immortals and its related heroes or other characters, and definitely the director has his own passion about building a universe, building a world in which all the Chinese traditional, third world, Chinese exist.

GC: Do you have a name for this cinematic universe yet?

CY: No, he's thinking on that.

MZ: Zhong Guo Xian Yu Zhou! (Chinese immortal universe 中国仙宇宙) [laughs]

CY: [laughs] So it's very it's over inclusive. It will include everything as long as far as the imagination goes.

GC: How is it being received globally so far?

CY: It's been received very well. I think we have received very positive feedback from North America, New Zealand, Australia, the British, and then also Southeast Asian countries as well, and also Hong Kong and Macau.

That's only the first countries, first round of countries and regions. We are also doing dubbed versions of French, German, and other languages, which will come out second round.

MZ: I think people really like the characters, and the message and the emotions that they present in the carries really resonates with a lot of the audiences around the world.

GC: Sure, I mean, the Eight Immortals are charming. They’ve been charming for so long.

MZ: Right, yeah, and there's a reason to that. And now we're just doing the work to bring it to the world to let more international audience get familiar.

GC: Now, ALL WISHES COME TRUE is your own take on their creation. Are you getting any reaction about defying the canon of the Eight Immortals? Like one of the things that kind of got me was my favorite immortal is Lu Dongbin. And in the end, he passes the sword on. And for me, it was kind of like, well, Lu can't give up his sword. That's his sword. That's his whole thing.

I mean, it's not a big deal, but just my own attachment. Do you have other people having reactions like that as the writer?

MZ: Okay, so far, I don't get any other similar feedback. I think this can be highly resonated among Chinese audience.

But going back to the sword, the symbolism of the sword is recognition or acknowledgement, and it is also the supreme honor of the Zhongnan Academy, where they were trained. So for Lu, he was already established as highly respectable character. But for Zhong, everybody knew that he had a miserable past. We saw his decline, we saw his struggle, and we saw him getting back on his feet. So he needs a lot more recognition and acknowledgement. Hence the passing down of the sword. The passing down of the sword was the one single beautiful moment.

GC: Yeah, it worked in the movie for sure.

As I said, Lu Dongbin is my favorite immortal. Who is your favorite immortal and why?

MZ: Zhongli Quan, because everybody, all people, can identify with him being flawed and he made mistakes, but he got back on his feet and do something to compensate what he did. I think that's highly identifiable among everyday people.

GC: Sure, that's kind of the heart of the story, right?

Is this your first trip to America? How is it going for you? How are you feeling?

MZ: Wonderful.

GC: How has this promotional tour gone for you?

MZ: I've been overwhelmed by the feedback because the audience being so passionate.

GC: And are you going to other countries?

CY: Actually we are. After finishing this trip, we are also going to Europe. We're going to Iceland and Malta. We're going to these two European countries to promote our movie together with other Chinese movies. So we are having a Chinese movie week in each of these two countries. We will be the opening movie at each of these festivals.

GC: Very good.

CY: For this trip, our first stop was Los Angeles, and this [San Francisco Bay Area] is our second. And then we're flying out to New York, Boston, and D.C.

GC: Hitting all the big movie metropolises.

CY: This is actually, if I'm not mistaken, I think this is the first kind of road show of a Chinese movie to do such a promotional format in the U.S. It's a very traditional way of promoting movies in China. We hit different cities actually back in China. From July to August, we did more than 18 cities. But this is the first time we're expanding it. We're expanding the strategy in the US, just to hit different cities and where I think it's really important for the director to come face to face with the audiences. And also to get the interviews like this to get more for the project for the movie itself and for the filmmaker to be more familiar with the local audience. I think that's very important.

It's different from when we are sitting back in China and just for people to see it on TV or on short videos, to get feedback and see what their questions are, how they resonate with the local audience.

GC: Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right, because I've been tracking Chinese cinema for over a quarter century, and I've never seen anybody do a U.S. tour like what you're doing right now.

CY: So I'm really excited about it. I think we should do something more new and a more interesting format, just for the two, from the creative side and also on the receiving end from the media, from academia, and from the industry, and also from the audience to come together face to face to do direct communication will be very helpful.

Author:

ALL WISHES COME TRUE is currently showing in select theaters across North America.

Gene Ching is the Publisher of KungFuMagazine.com and the author of Shaolin Trips.

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