''Princess Iron Fan'' (), 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 Wan Guchan (; 18 January 1900 – 19 November 1995) was a Chinese filmmaker. Born in Nanjing, Jiangsu, he was one of the Wan brothers who pioneered the Chinese animations industry. Early history Wan Guchan joined his twin brother Wan Laiming ...

and

Wan Laiming Wan Laiming (; 18 January 1900 – 7 October 1997) was born in Nanjing, Qing dynasty. He was one of the Wan brothers who pioneered the Chinese animation industry, and is commonly considered as China's first animator. As the director of the Sh ...

(the

Wan brothers The Wan Brothers () were born in the early 20th century in Nanjing, China. They became the founders and pioneers of the Chinese animation industry and made the first Asian animation feature-length film, '' Princess Iron Fan'' in 1941. Background ...

) and was released on November 19, 1941. The film later became influential in the development of East Asian animation, including Japanese anime and Chinese animation.

Plot

The story was liberally adapted from a short sequence in the popular Chinese novel '' Journey to the West''.

Princess Iron Fan Princess Iron Fan () is a character from the 16th century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West''. She is the wife of the Bull Demon King and mother of Red Boy. She is one of the most popular ''Journey to the West'' villains, alongside her husband t ...

is a main character. Specifically, the film focused on the duel between the

Monkey King The Monkey King, also known as Sun Wukong ( zh, t=孫悟空, s=孙悟空, first=t) in Mandarin Chinese, is a legendary mythical figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West'' ( zh, ...

and a vengeful princess, whose fan is desperately needed to quench the flames that surround a peasant village.

Creators

Background

The Wan family twins

and

with their brothers

Wan Chaochen Wan Chao-Chan (; 1906–1992) was born in Nanjing, China. He was one of the Wan brothers who pioneered the Chinese animations Chinese animation refers to animation made in China. In China and in Chinese, donghua ( zh, s=动画, t=動畫, p=dò ...

and

Wan Dihuan Wan Dihuan (; born 1907, date of death unknown) was a Chinese filmmaker. Born in Nanjing, China, he was one of the Wan brothers who pioneered the Chinese animation industry. His date of birth is unknown. History Wan Dihuan assisted his brothers i ...

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 A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

animated film. In 1939, the

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 Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced o ...

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 of footage. And the final piece would contain of footage which can be shown in 80 minutes. The

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 The Xinhua or New China Film Company (), was one of the film studios to capitalize on the popularity of the leftist film movement in 1930s Shanghai, that had begun with the Mingxing and Lianhua studios. It is not related to the modern-day Xinhua N ...

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 Zhang may refer to: Chinese culture, etc. * Zhang (surname) (張/张), common Chinese surname ** Zhang (surname 章), a rarer Chinese surname * Zhang County (漳县), of Dingxi, Gansu * Zhang River (漳河), a river flowing mainly in Henan * ''Zh ...

. ''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

''Princess Iron Fans influences were far-reaching; it was swiftly exported to wartime Japan, inspiring the 16-year-old Osamu Tezuka to become a comics artist and prompting the

Japanese Navy , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

to commission Japan's own first feature-length animated film, 1945's ''

Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors is the first Japanese feature-length animated film. It was directed by Mitsuyo Seo, who was ordered to make a propaganda film for World War II by the Japanese Naval Ministry. Shochiku Moving Picture Laboratory shot the 74-minute film in 1944 a ...

'' (the earlier film '' Momotaro's Sea Eagles'' is three minutes shy of being feature-length).

References

External links

* * * (another version)
Completed English subtitles for the film

{{DEFAULTSORT:Princess Iron Fan (1941 film) 1941 animated films 1941 films Chinese animated films Rotoscoped films Chinese black-and-white films Films based on Journey to the West