Princess Iron Fan (1941 film)

Princess Iron Fan
Princess Iron Fan
Directed by	Wan Guchan; Wan Laiming;
Produced by	Wan Guchan; Wan Laiming;
Distributed by	Cinema Epoch
Release date	19 November 1941 (China);
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 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 November 19, 1941.

The film later became influential in the development of East Asian animation, including Japanese anime, Vietnamese animation, Korean animation and Chinese animation.^[1]^[2]

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 focused on the duel between the Monkey King and a vengeful princess, whose fan is desperately needed to quench the flames that surround a peasant village.

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 Zhongren	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	羽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 Wenwang 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望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	者色	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

Background

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.

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 (400ream＝500×400). 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. The manager of the company who help financed the film was Zhang Shankun.

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 Fan's influences were far-reaching;^[1] it was swiftly exported to wartime Japan, inspiring 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).^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "An Animated Wartime Encounter: Princess Iron Fan and the Chinese Connection in Early Japanese Animation". Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University. Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Specifically, it focuses Princess Iron Fan (1941), the first animated feature film made in China and Asia, and how its wartime travel to Japan gave rise to the birth of animated feature films in wartime Japan. It also impacted Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989), the so-called god of modern Japanese manga and anime whose works were shadowed by Princess Iron Fan from the beginning to the end of his career. Princess Iron Fan transformed the early history of Japanese animation, yet its national identity was changed by the journey.
^ "Princess Iron Fan". Far East Film Festival. China's first feature-length cartoon, the third in the world, exerted an incredible influence on the Asian animation market.... It also inspired the Japanese to make their own animated feature, indirectly pollinating the early anime industry. PRINCESS IRON FAN was cited as a major influence on Japan's greatest manga artist Osamu Tezuka, who entered the field after seeing it as a boy in 1943.

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

[animatedconnection-1] "An Animated Wartime Encounter: Princess Iron Fan and the Chinese Connection in Early Japanese Animation". Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University. Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Specifically, it focuses Princess Iron Fan (1941), the first animated feature film made in China and Asia, and how its wartime travel to Japan gave rise to the birth of animated feature films in wartime Japan. It also impacted Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989), the so-called god of modern Japanese manga and anime whose works were shadowed by Princess Iron Fan from the beginning to the end of his career. Princess Iron Fan transformed the early history of Japanese animation, yet its national identity was changed by the journey.

[2] "Princess Iron Fan". Far East Film Festival. China's first feature-length cartoon, the third in the world, exerted an incredible influence on the Asian animation market.... It also inspired the Japanese to make their own animated feature, indirectly pollinating the early anime industry. PRINCESS IRON FAN was cited as a major influence on Japan's greatest manga artist Osamu Tezuka, who entered the field after seeing it as a boy in 1943.

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