''Little Soldier Zhang Ga'' () is a
Chinese animated feature film
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 ...
from
mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
. It is also referred to as ''"Zhang Ga, The Soldier Boy"''. It is adapted from the Chinese children's novel of the same name, by Xu Guangyao 徐光耀, which was based on the true story of
Yan Xiufeng.
Background
One film and one TV series with the same name precede the animated version, with more mature contents in 1963 and 2004. The animation version was a 12 million
RMB
The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...
investment (about US $1.5 million), modified for younger audiences. The production crew also consist of about 600 people. This version aims to target audiences of all age groups.
The film was made in a collaboration between "Ai Yi Mei Xun Animation Production Company", an unnamed US-funded Chinese company in association with BTV, and the Youth Film Production Unit at
Beijing Film Academy
Beijing Film Academy (BFA; ) is a coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. The film school is the largest institution specializing in the tertiary education for film and television production in Asia. The academy ...
. The students and faculties from the academy contributed to keep production costs down. It is the first film created entirely with private investments. In the cinemas, it was shown due to the 60th anniversary of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese in 2005.
Plot
The story is set in
Baiyangdian, in
Hebei Province
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...
, and is based on the backdrop of the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
and the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
with character Zhang Ga in the middle of the chaos along with the
Eighth Route Army. The real story is based on the actual person
Yan Xiufeng, whose childhood name was Gazi, who was born in Baiyangdian.
Translations of the novel
English translation, by Wu Wenyuan: ''Little soldier Chang Ka-tse''
[Little Soldier Chang Ka-tse, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1977 (one of many editions of this novel by this publisher).http://www.worldcat.org/title/little-soldier-chang-ka-tse/oclc/696741216]
See also
*
List of animated feature-length films
These lists of animated feature films compiles animated feature films from around the world and is organized alphabetically under the year of release (the year the completed film was first released to the public). Theatrical releases as well as ...
* Minjie Chen, ''The Sino-Japanese War and Youth Literature: Friends and Foes on the Battlefield'' (Routledge, 2016).
References
{{Reflist
External links
Veteran Story: Yan Xiufeng
2005 films
Chinese animated films
2000s Mandarin-language films