tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post3218742498789811708..comments2024-03-26T22:42:06.412-07:00Comments on TAG Blog: China and AnimationSteve Huletthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05537689111433326847noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-64704667265427354412010-08-17T01:03:26.182-07:002010-08-17T01:03:26.182-07:00I know a lot has to do with trying to promote them...<i>I know a lot has to do with trying to promote themselves and their culture, but sometimes the story gets a little lost in the process. They need to be less proud and precious about their culture.</i><br /><br />Think that Jackie Chan Monkey King movie that came out a year or two ago was the result of some US/China film cooperative...Meaning, China, being a culturally-responsible Communist country, felt they had to make yet one more film that "explained" their traditional heritage to a curious West.<br /><br />Japan, OTOH, started out doing folktales in their proto 60's/70's animation, and then moved on to what they knew best: Robots, spaceships, and other indulgent kids' fantasies of an ambitious culture.<br />Japan basically didn't care where or if their stuff was being imported, had their own fun for capitalist profit, and later found their US audience by accident, when those audiences liked the same things.<br /><br />...Which is why China (as opposed to the HK that gave us John Woo and Stephen Chow) will never "beat" Japan at anime:<br />They're too responsible to be irresponsible, too repressed to have fun, and too state-supported to go after a comic-book profit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22906998.post-60784361378584422522010-08-16T17:04:04.037-07:002010-08-16T17:04:04.037-07:00As someone who lives in Korea, I see China has a s...As someone who lives in Korea, I see China has a similar problem to Korea in the fact that their stories are usually "too asian" for western audiences.<br /><br />Whether it's about the numerous retelling of the fox with nine tails that transforms into a woman, or every other animation with some sort of martial art, these stories are good for their home audiences, but do not travel well when released internationally.<br /><br />I know a lot has to do with trying to promote themselves and their culture, but sometimes the story gets a little lost in the process. They need to be less proud and precious about their culture.<br /><br />Where the Japanese have had great success, is in the art of telling the story. Look at any Miyazaki film for instance, and you will obviously find traces of "Japanese-ness" in some of these films, but it does not overpower the story, and the same goes for many other films from Japan.<br /><br />China and Korea, while having a strong and extremely talented workforce, have a lot to learn about the types of stories to tell if they truly want to succeed on the world stage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com