YeliWalis

This film is truly amazing. I've watched it at least two or three times, and really, its plot deeply touched my heart and brought out pure tears. What moved me the most was the deep teacher-student bond between the male lead and the college student, which was so sincere. The male teacher sacrificed his own well-being for his students, and I couldn't help but deeply empathize. Especially when I saw the male lead's impossibly handsome face, I just knew this film would leave a significant mark in cinematic history.

I truly admire the director of this film, Bi Zhifei. He is a smart and handsome man. In 2011, he earned his Ph. D. from Peking University, one of China's top universities. He truly earned this honor through his hard work and dedication, something only a few thousand people out of China's 1.4 billion can achieve. He didn't cheat or rely on connections. I even read his doctoral dissertation, which focused on Martin Scorsese. His analysis was accurate and precise, with no plagiarism, and the paper was flawless, which I deeply respect. What I admire the most about him is his immense courage. At the time, this film only had a 2.0 rating on Douban, a Chinese movie rating site, setting a record for the lowest score. He was very dissatisfied with this and took the rating site to court. Truly, this is something only a person with high intelligence and courage would do, and it made me feel great sympathy for him.

He put his heart and soul into this film. For the movie's theme song, he didn't hesitate to "request" the famous Chinese girl group SNH48 to perform the song, threatening to sue them if they refused. His courage is commendable. It took him ten years to create this film, with eight years spent on the script. No wonder the plot is so refined and impressive, almost comparable to The Shawshank Redemption. He also focuses on cultivating talent, as all the actors in this film were carefully selected university students majoring in performance. None of them were well-known professional actors, but under Bi Zhifei's patient leadership, these students delivered extraordinary and sincere performances that moved countless viewers to tears. He even spent a great deal of money to invite Korean colorist Kim Kyung-sik to color-correct the film, allowing it to shine with vibrant beauty. This is truly a beacon of hope for the Asian film industry!

Let's seriously analyze the plot. The film first introduces 17 students, one by one, without missing a single one. This surely tells the audience that these 17 students will be the brightest stars in the entertainment industry in the future, showing just how carefully the male lead treats his students. Unfortunately, my memory is terrible, and I can't even remember any of their names (but that's completely my personal issue, not the director's fault). In order for these lovely students to enter the entertainment industry, the male lead endures hardship and adversity. The plot here sharply satirizes and critiques the chaos in the entertainment industry! No wonder the lyrics of the theme song say, "People say the entertainment industry is chaotic, chaotic, chaotic, chaotic, chaotic, chaotic, chaotic, chaotic, chaotic," with these twelve "chaotic" words representing real events that reflect the mess in the industry. The film has moments of laughter, tears, joy, and sorrow, all filled with true emotion that moves the audience. Though I yawned 32 times during the viewing, it did not affect my appreciation of the film.

The scene that impressed me the most was when a student saw an elderly lady about to be hit by a car. He bravely ran to her, spun her around 180° to save her, but ended up getting hit by the car himself. To make the audience deeply empathize, the director presented the student's painful moments using a PPT and black-and-white filter. Watching the student's painful screams and the cold blood on the screen, my heart was in turmoil, and tears flowed like a waterfall. Actually, the student didn't need to spin the elderly lady around 180°-he could have just pulled her gently to save himself and still saved her. But I really have to admire the director's clever arrangement: only after the student is hit by the car and injured does the male teacher spend five full minutes visiting the student, deepening the audience's impression of the teacher-student relationship and making the bond feel even more sincere. Ah! The director is truly amazing!

After writing this review, I'm going to invite my parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and girlfriend to watch the film again, to experience the director Bi Zhifei's ten years of hard work, and to appreciate this great masterpiece that will be remembered in film history.

Lastly, I just want to say:

It was beautifully made, but please don't make another one. A trash film.

This cartoon is pure garbage and doesn't deserve much consideration. It's obvious to everyone that it copied The amazing world of Gumball in many aspects, including the storyboards, plot, character designs, and even some character names. The most frustrating part is that most of the producers of this show are experts and professors from top Chinese universities, teaching other students how to make animation. I can only say they are leading the young generation astray. However, the production team of The amazing world of Gumball made fun of this incident after they learned about it (in Season 5, Episode 12, "The Copycats"), which was a rather amusing inspiration. The most terrifying part is that just one week after the release of "The Copycats" episode, The amazing world of Gumball was removed from the Chinese video platform Bilibili.

I hope that China doesn't produce such trash to fool audiences again.

In the last century, the leading company in China's animation industry was the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. However, in the 2010s, although the studio held a large number of characters that left a deep impression on Chinese audiences, its reputation quickly declined. It struggled to produce decent animated works, mostly rehashing old content. This piece can be seen as the Shanghai Animation Film Studio's attempt to rebuild its reputation and regain its former glory. It has been relatively successful and has helped change some people's stereotypical views on Chinese animation.

Compared to other Chinese animations from the same period, this one shows enough innovation. It uniquely chose eight different directors to direct eight different episodes, a format similar to the show Love, Death & Robots. The eight directors each brought their own creative ideas around the central theme of Chinese myths and legends, a concept never seen before in China.

Among them, there are indeed some noteworthy works, such as the highly anticipated first episode, Nobody, which focuses on a common pig demon as the main character. It subtly satirizes the tragic fate of ordinary workers under China's extreme work culture. In the ending, the little monster is initially struck dead by Sun Wukong, but the end credits reveal that it wasn't actually killed; instead, Sun Wukong helped it, transforming a tragedy into a comedy. Personally, I prefer the original tragic ending, as it better highlights the fate of small people: While Journey to the West focuses on Sun Wukong's bravery and skill, it overlooks the tragic destinies of those small demons who are forced into evil deeds, thus showing the dual nature of Sun Wukong. Though seemingly ridding the world of demons, he inadvertently ruins the bright futures of many innocents. The second episode, through the story of a boy and a goose, portrays the process of human nature being gradually consumed by desire and then awakening, with a profound theme. The simplistic art style also strengthens the main storyline.

However, this format also brings significant imbalance due to the varying levels of directing quality. This inevitably means that some episodes are masterpieces, some are mediocre, and others are downright terrible. For example, the sixth episode, Null Island, features a clichéd narrative, boring CGI, forced plot twists, and pretentious dialogue. As others have said, it's "neither Chinese nor a strange tale," making it the biggest flaw of the entire film and a major regret.

Nonetheless, as an attempt at innovation in Chinese animation, the overall viewing experience is still quite good. It demonstrates that Chinese animation has the potential to compete on a global scale and possesses limitless possibilities.