Jinghan Zhang

Elixir

For centuries, the Emperors of China sought the secret of immortality, often ingesting substances such as mercury and sulfur in the hope of prolonging their grasp on power indefinitely. Ironically, consuming such deadly concoctions only served to end their lives far earlier than natural.

These legends are explored in Jinghan Zhang’s Elixir, a short morality tale that won Best Animation at the Vegas Movie Awards last October. Told in a bold visual style, the story follows a despotic emperor who demands a life-extending magic pill from a Taoist alchemist.

The magical formula constantly eludes the alchemist, much to the Emperor’s anger. After the Emperor punishes the alchemist a little too harshly for his latest failed attempt, the Taoist plots his dastardly revenge…

Director Zhang was raised a Christian in the Russian-influenced city of Harbin before moving to Beijing, where she became fascinated with her country’s history and discovered the tales of immortality-seeking emperors. The result is a Christianity-infused take on Chinese lore, exploring the betrayal, murder, lust, vengeance and greed of its two sinful characters.

Zhang uses an array of striking animation techniques and cinematic styles to weave her dark story. She creates an interesting dichotomy between the Emperor and the Alchemist from the outset. The Emperor lives in a towering, opulent palace just across a rickety rope bridge from the Alchemist’s mysterious cave. It’s neat cinematic shorthand, and their appearances are also vividly contrasted. The Emperor is obese, jowly and sweating, while the sinister Alchemist is lithe, angular and pale. The ancient China of Zhang’s vision is a magical land, but it is also a place of brutality. There are no good guys in this tale. The Emperor’s greed and cruelty are evident from the start, while the Alchemist, presented as a kind of sorcerer, has even worse terrors in mind when he wreaks his revenge. At its darkest point, Elixir plays almost as a horror, with terrified villagers dragged away into the darkness, virgins strung up from makeshift gallows and blood running in the streets. Neither character has any redeeming qualities, and the story is laser-focused on the corrupting influence of absolute power. This may lead some viewers to ponder the tale in a modern context. For all its darkness and grim morality, Elixir shines on the animation front. In just a few short minutes, Zhang creates a mystical world that it would be a pleasure to spend more time exploring.

– Written by Lee Adams
Film Critic
leerobertadams@hotmail.co.uk

Elixir

Can you comfort an Emperor obsessed with finding a magic pill that will ensure his eternal youth? – the award winning short animated film “Elixir” created by Jinghan Zhang definitely has the answer. Dark, but vibrant, frightening, but playful.This short animated experience has its own cinematic style. The camera certainly does not exist but all the frame movements including the zoom maneuvers give an impression of its presence. Despite the fact that it is made in 2D technique, with the use of smoke, fire and more layers there is an illusion that Zhang used 3D animation. Or maybe the enigma lies in a unique style, and his decision to combine both of them on purpose.

Still, where this short film scores is in the imaginative visualization of the characters perfectly choreographed by the animation and the music. Created with dramatic characters whose face expressions are truthfully and precisely expressed in every scene. They simply don’t talk, but are entirely supported by the voice over that deserves to be heard. On the whole, once you watch this short, it will be clear enough why it has been recognized and awarded at various animation film festivals. Finally, there is no doubt that Evil certainly exists, just one needs to discover the right Elixir.

– Written by Bistra Georgieva
Children writer and scriptwriter
b_georgieva@yahoo.com

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Animation

The wonder’s of animation introduces us to many new worlds and tells us many stories. Stories that inspire us as children’s and adults alike. But the animation has also given us another true gift, to send a message. To make sure people who live in their reality, remembers the reality of the misfortunate’s. So here the Organization for poverty Alleviation and Development (OPAD), is using the wonders of animation to send us one of the many important messages of all.

The animation brings in light of many major issues facing this world, to begin with, it brings to our attention the issue of Poverty, then Hunger, Quality education, Gender Equality, and finally Climate action.This wonderful animation brings us so much in short amount of time.As you will notice, the animation has no voices or faces, only a background score, which is peaceful and hope- bringing and sets the tone perfectly. Even though, there is no narration in this video, it was executed so accurately, that the message was very well received by the audience. The transition of the scenes is done very smoothly that the animations flows in our mind like a river. The cinematography seemed like hand held even though it was obviously not. Each frame was linked to the next one with smooth, mesmerizing movement. The colouration of each scene was done with a subtle touch, not too much, not too little, perfect in every sense. Zhang’s this amazing work of art was not only spectacular but also light bringing and socially advantageous. If you have watched this short work of art, I am sure it inspires people to log on to www.opadint.org and find your own little way of good to contribute.

Eternity

Sometimes words aren’t enough for us to express our feelings. Animations and movies conveys with music and thoughtful stories and scripts. But sometimes that might turn out to be not enough. That’s when we enter the realm of Abstract art. The random images and un-explainable videos in abstract art is telling a story of its own through visual measures only.Here we are dealing with an abstract art which truely makes every viewer know the feelings of its creator.

The short animation “Eternity” is taking us through the journey of how life begins and how life is truely eternal.The film begins with an ever soothing background score perfectly suited to the tone, Zhang wanted to set.The Phrase “Life without end, Life only forward” covers the entire essence of this art accurately, by which Zhang gave an exemplary introduction to the video. The animation is visually stimulating and ever flowing. The journey of how the sperm reaches the egg and fuses with it was amazingly portrayed by this abstract art marking the beginning to this eternal journey. The Dynamics of the animation is a big “Wow” factor of the film. The eye-fulfilling colour’s gave the audience another reason to watch it again.The film ended with a sight of uncountable number of cell’s which started from the fused egg. A fitting end to the an outstanding piece of art.

Elixir

Animation films are a work of art that requires patience and dedication. Every animator has their own story of hard work and commitment to say about their work. A rich story with rich dynamics and color makes a wonderful animation which makes the audience fall in an helpless trance. The “Elixir” was no less than one of the best works an animator can offer.

The story follows in the ancient country of china, where a mad emperor is obsessed with a pill that grants immortality, he commands his Taoist to make this pill, but unfortunately the pill’s ingredient and formula is a mystery, the taoist fails several times over and over, and the emperor grows tired of this and after severe punishment commands him to make the pill immediately.The taoist who grew tired of the mad emperor, hatches a plan. He says to the emperor that the secret ingredient to the pill is 999 hearts of infants and 999 virgin souls and then they have to be burned for 49 days for the pill to be prepared. The mad emperor who was pleased with this, ordered for these ingredients to be arranged. He bloodied the entire country by killing all those infants, and virgin girls. Finally after 49 days, emperor himself appears to take the pill from the light, as he is the true son of the dragon. After eating the pill, the emperor realized he was tricked by the taoist, but by then it was too late. Since the emperor disappeared, the taoist takes command of the entire nation.

The story though a small one, was well written and well thought out. Even after watching, the moments linger inside our mind for so long.The music was so mysterious and mesmerizing that it was so suited for the story line, making the film more enjoyable. The animation was purely cartoonish and yet to the story it was well suited.The coloring and dynamics of the animation was executed perfectly to make the viewers want more of it. Character’s are the life of any animation and Jinghan here has give an outstanding depiction, which did justice to this film. The character designs make me think as Peking opera.The character faces give us insight into their souls, which shows the exemplary animation works.The story moves in such an unpredictable way that it envelops the audience in its thriller trance. The cinematography was inimitable and breathtaking. Jinghan Zhang has done herself an exemplary work of art, which makes her deserving of all the awards that she achieved.

– Written by Ajiv Krishnan
Film Critic
ajivkrishnan0612@gmail.com