Tang Dynasty animates the box office in new movie

The celebrated ancient poet Li Bai and his close friend Gao Shi come to life in the new animated movie "Chang An," set amid the heyday and decline of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

The title comes from the dynasty's capital city ― today's Xi'an, Shaanxi Province ― which has long played a prominent role in Chinese history and public imagination. It was also the backdrop for the 2019 box-office hit "Longest Day at Chang'an."

After its premiere on Saturday, the film raked in more than 100 million yuan (US$13.8 million) in ticket sales within a day and had grossed over 225 million yuan as of Monday afternoon.

"It's a hoot and a half," said 32-year-old Stella Zhu. "Every Chinese has a Tang dream, and this movie takes me back to one of the nation's greatest eras, where I can feel ultimate idealism, romanticism and inclusiveness."

On the Chinese film and review website Douban, "Chang An" garnered an 8 out of 10 rating, unusually high for a Chinese animated movie.

The film is the seventh production of Beijing-based Light Chaser Animation Studios, often called "China's Pixar" because of its successes since its establishment in 2013.

"Chang An" retains what is known as studio's guofeng (国风), or "traditional Chinese fashion," which bases storylines on traditional mythology, history, poetry, art and fashion.

This style has become popular in mainstream entertainment, largely through the younger generation's obsession with video-sharing platforms such as Bilibili and the anime-comic-games industry.

Some Chinese animated movies, such as "White Snake" and "Ne Zha," have made it into the international market with various degrees of success.

Under the official English trailer released on YouTube for "White Snake," international fans left over 2,000 positive comments. One YouTuber wrote: "For someone who loves Asian culture and mythology, this is everything."

When shown the official English trailer for "Chang An," US native Madison Meyer said, "The scene where Li jumped on the crane was breathtakingly beautiful and something very inherently Chinese in nature. I am quite impressed."

Asami Kitagawa from Japan commented on expertise of the computer-generated imagery.

However, both viewers did also point out some of the issues they had with the trailer.

"I'm unfamiliar with ancient Chinese," Kitagawa said, "which makes the poetry quite difficult to understand. I fear that relying on English translations may mean that much of the beauty behind the poems is lost in translation."

Meyer said he thinks the complex plot may be intimidating for someone who's not familiar with Chinese history.

Getting past language and cultural barriers is always a challenge for Chinese animated movies seeking to break into the international market.

On the US-based Rotten Tomatoes film review site, "Ne Zha" scored 88 percent with critics and 98 percent with audiences. The movie was the first Chinese animated feature to be released in IMAX format, and although it had a domestic box office of over US$700 million, its globally fell shy of US$3 million.

"It's okay for exported cultural products to rely initially on cultural symbols," said Ding Hanqing, vice president of the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University, "but if they don't develop beyond simple symbols, they might not go far. Cultural products must reflect emotions and identities that can resonate on a global scale."

In an environment where mature animation industries, such as the one in Japan, have established long and successful international dominance, it's hard for newcomers to stake out a place.

According to Li Ni, chief operating officer of Bilibili, China's animated movie industry is now in the phase where it is becoming more closely integrated with the global industry.

"In overseas platforms, Chinese animated films have emerged as a new hashtag and are gradually gaining popularity," she said in a public interview.