| Princess Iron Fan | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | |
| Produced by |
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| Distributed by | United China Film Company |
Release date |
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Running time | 73 min |
| Country | China |
Princess Iron Fan (traditional Chinese: 鐵扇公主; simplified Chinese: 铁扇公主; pinyin: Tiě shàn gōngzhǔ), is the first full-length 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 and Wan Laiming (the Wan brothers) and was released on 19 November 1941.
The film later became influential in the development of Japanese animation. Its circulation in wartime Japan helped inspire the production of Momotarō's Sea Eagles (1943) and Momotarō's Divine Sea Warriors, and later influenced Osamu Tezuka's creation of Astro Boy (1963).[1]
Plot
The story was liberally adapted from a short sequence in the popular Chinese novel Journey to the West. Princess Iron Fan is a main character.
Specifically, the film starts with Princess Iron Fan initially refusing to lend the fan because Monkey had previously subdued her son, Red Boy. Monkey first tries to defeat her directly, but she blows him away with the fan. He later transforms himself into a small insect and enters her stomach, forcing her to surrender the fan. The conflict expands when Bull Demon King, Princess Iron Fan’s husband, becomes involved. With the help of local villagers, Tripitaka’s disciples eventually subdue Bull Demon King, obtain the fan, extinguish the fire, and resume their journey to the west.
Production
The Wan family twins Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan with their brothers Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan 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 animated film. In 1939, the Wan brothers 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.
Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan returned to the unoccupied International Settlement and French Concession of Shanghai (known as Orphan/Solitary Island) in April 1939 and produced Tieshan gongzhu/Princess Iron Fan (1941), the first animated feature film in Asia. It became an instant hit and traveled to many other countries.[1] The animators worked with extremely limited resources, including a shortage of film stock, animation equipment, and financial support, as much of the country was engulfed in conflict. reflecting both the ambition and the technical limitations of China's fledgling animation industry at the time.
The film took three years, 237 artists and 350,000 yuan to make. Rotoscoping 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 (400 reams of 500 pieces each). They shot over 18,000 ft (5,500 m) of footage. And the final piece would contain 7,600 ft (2,300 m) of footage which can be shown in 80 minutes. The Wan brothers 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 animation department since it was the only remaining production company left during the period of the Japanese occupation. Sheng Pihua, the head of Shangyuanyin Company, help financed the film.
Princess Iron Fan became the first animated feature film to be made in China. The movie was made to create an Indigenous Chinese princess that is based on folklore.[2] Upon completion the film was screened by the Chinese union film company.
Creators
| English production | Original version | Crew | Romanized |
|---|---|---|---|
| Produced by | 監製 | S.K Chang (Zhang Shankun) | 張善琨 |
| Screenplay by | 編劇 | Wang Qianbai | 王乾白 |
| Screenwriting Consultant | 顧問 | Chen Yiqing | 陳翼青 |
| Sound Recorded by | 錄音 | Liu Enze Using Chinatone Technology |
劉恩澤 採用中華通錄音機 |
| Musical Director | 音樂指揮 | Huang Yijun | 黃貽鈞 |
| Musical Consultant | 音樂顧問 | Zhang Zhengfan | 章正凡 |
| Composer | 作曲 | Lu Chongren | 陸仲任 |
| Sound Effects | 效果 | Chen Zhong | 陳中 |
| Editing | 剪輯 | Wang Jinyi | 王金義 |
| Printing | 洗印 | Xu Hexiang Lin Xiangfu Chen Xinyu |
許荷香 林祥富 陳鑫甫 |
| Designers | 設計 | Chen Qifa Fei Boyi |
陳啟發 費伯夷 |
| Photography | 攝影 | Liu Guangxing Chen Zhengfa Zhou Jiarang Shi Fengqi Sun Feixia |
劉廣興 陳正發 周家讓 石鳳岐 孫緋霞 |
| Backgrounds | 背景 | Cao Xu Chen Fangqian Tang Tao Fan Manyun |
曹旭 陳方千 唐濤 范曼雲 |
| Illustrators | 繪稿 | Yu Yiru Li Yi Liu Wenjie Wu Guang Yin Fusheng Chen Jintao Xie Minyan Liu Chenfei Zhao Fengshi Zhu Yong Liu Yimeng Shen Youming Hu Sixiao Guo Ruisheng Wu Yan Jin Fangbin Cao Zhong Zhang Danian |
俞翼如 李毅 劉文頡 吳光 殷復生 陳錦濤 謝敏燕 劉嗔非 趙逢時 朱湧 劉軼蒙 沈叩鳴 胡斯孝 郭瑞生 吳焱 金方斌 曹忠 張大年 |
| Line Drawings | 繪線 | Chen Min Wu Minfa Sun Xiuping Yu Wenjun Wu Yueting Huang Zhenwen Lu Zhongbo Dai Jue Ye Lingyun Zhang Liangqin Sun Song Guo Hengyi Yuan Yongqing Shen Ruihe Chen Jinfan Zhang Jutang Fang Pinying Yu Zupeng Sheng Liangxian Shen Zhongxia Tang Yude Lu Guangyi Zhang Tan Zhu Shunlin Ding Baoguang Shi Fakang Zhao Shengzai Qin Qixian Yang Jinxin Feng Bofan |
陳民 吴民發 孫修平 俞文鋆 吳悅庭 黃振文 陸仲柏 戴覺 葉凌雲 章亮欽 孫松 郭恆義 袁永慶 沈瑞鶴 陳錦範 張菊堂 方品英 俞祖鵬 盛亮賢 沈忠俠 唐秉德 陸光儀 張談 朱順麟 丁竇光 石發康 趙盛哉 欽其賢 楊錦新 馮伯富 |
| Color Artists | 着色 | Yuan Huimin Weng Huanbo Ge Yongliang Wang Zengting Wang Congzhou Quan Han Lin Kezhen Li Shifen Mi Longnian Yuan Yuyao Yuan Zichuan Xu Huifen Zou Guiying Xu Huilan Chen Huiying Cai Yongfa Dai Keshu Dai Kehui Luo Zong |
袁慧敏 翁煥伯 戈永良 王增庭 王從周 全漢 林可珍 李世芬 宓龍年 袁玉瑤 袁子傳 許惠芬 鄒桂英 許蕙蘭 陳慧英 蔡永發 戴克淑 戴克惠 羅粽 |
| Lead Artists | 主繪 | Wan Laiming Wan Guchan |
萬籟鳴 萬古蟾 |
Soundtrack
The original soundtrack was composed by Lu Chong-Ren (1911-2011), a folk music composer known for his work. Scholars have praised the soundtrack for incorporating and adapting Chinese folk elements, although some modern listeners might perceive it as excessively gestural and action-driven, akin to early Tom and Jerry cartoons.[3]
Influences
Initially, the film was a major success upon its release in December 1941 in Shanghai, running for a record-breaking one and a half months. Subsequently, it was also shown in Hong Kong, South Asia, and Japan. Despite its popularity, the Japanese military banned the film from being shown in Japan due to its wartime themes and rhetoric.[4]
Princess Iron Fan's inspired the 16-year-old Osamu Tezuka to become a comics artist and prompting the Japanese Navy to commission Japan's own first feature-length animated film, 1945's Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors (the earlier film Momotaro's Sea Eagles is three minutes shy of being feature-length).
The film marked an important development in Chinese animation, demonstrating that the medium could serve purposes beyond entertainment. Produced during the Second Sino-Japanese War, it incorporated themes of national resistance and reflected the filmmakers' belief that animation could contribute to the broader project of national salvation.[5] Though its production was shaped by wartime hardships, the film demonstrated the viability of animation as a serious cinematic form in China and helped initiate what would become a distinct tradition of Chinese animation.[6]
Artistic styles
A Chinese landscape painting method known as Ink Wash painting, which flourished throughout the Sui and Tang Dynasty from the sixth to the ninth century and is still in use today, is the inspiration for Princess Iron Fan's visual aesthetic.
In addition to traditional Chinese artistic styles, the Wans also cultivated a unique style that set their work apart. They used galloping rich imagery, and bright, colorful, and expressive techniques of bold exaggeration. This style can be considered as: pursuing personal initiative, individual inclination, thought and fantasy, and form and content.[7]
See also
References
- Du, Daisy Yan (2017). "Suspended Animation: The Wan Brothers and the (In)Animate Mainland-Hong Kong Encounter, 1947-1956". Journal of Chinese Cinemas. 11 (2): 141. doi:10.1080/17508061.2017.1322783. ISSN 1750-8061.
- Chen, Ying (9 February 2020). "Transborder Fairy Tales: Princess Iron Fan and the Discourse of Children". acas.world. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- Cha, Yu-Ching (August 2016). Portfolio of compositions: film re-scores. The Goddess(1934) Princess Iron Fan(1941). University of Southampton Institutional Repository (Thesis). University of Southampton. p. 60-61. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- Cha, Yu-Ching (August 2016). Portfolio of compositions: film re-scores. The Goddess(1934) Princess Iron Fan(1941). University of Southampton Institutional Repository (Thesis). University of Southampton. p. 60-61. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- Du, Daisy Yan (2019). "An Animated Wartime Encounter: Princess Iron Fan and the Chinese Connection in Early Japanese Animation". Animated Encounters: Transnational Movements of Chinese Animation, 1940s–1970s. University of Hawai'i Press. p. 43.
- Pan, Jian (1 May 2022). "Constructing a Theoretical System for the "Chinese School of New Animation"". Journal of Chinese Film Studies. 2 (1): 131–147. doi:10.1515/jcfs-2022-0015. ISSN 2702-2277.
- Macdonald, Sean (2016). Animation in China History, Aesthetics, Media. UK: Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 9781138094789.
Further reading
- Jonathan Clements. (2002). "Chinese Animation". Nickelodeon Magazine.
- Hu, Tze-yue G. (2010). Frames of Anime: Culture and Image-Building. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-962-209-097-2.
- Travel Channel China. (2004). "Extensive Info on Wan Brothers". Tieshangongzhu first-length cartoon.
External links
- Princess Iron Fan (1941) with English subtitles translated by Christopher Rea, Chinese Film Classics Project (UBC)
- Princess Iron Fan at IMDb
- Princess Iron Fan is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- Princess Iron Fan is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive (another version)
- Completed English subtitles for the film
- A few stills from the movie