Japanese legends, monsters, ukiyo-e and origami art in "Legend of Magic Strings"

Uriel 2021-11-23 08:01:13

The fourth stop-motion animation film "Legend of Magic Strings" (Kubo and the Two Strings) produced by Leica Studio will be released in China soon. It will be directed by CEO Travis Knight. Participate as the chief animator, such as "Box Monster", "Psychic Boy Norman" and "Ghost Mother". This time with Japanese culture as the background, you can see that from the scene to the characters in the film, they are deeply inspired by Japanese traditional culture. The story is of course not the strength of this film, nor is it the focus of this article. The stop-motion animation is really culminating in this way. This article is just a specific look at this film from the perspective of legends, works of art and reference films. The content includes reference to the director’s interview, the book "Illustrated Japanese Monsters" published by Shaanxi Normal University and yokai.com's introduction to Japanese monsters (I was honored to meet the director himself last week, and some questions have also been officially answered by him).

The huge wave at the beginning of the Ukiyo-e "Kanagawa Surfing" movie is from the Ukiyoe "Kanagawa Surfing", which is the masterpiece of Ukiyo-e master Katsushika Hokusai. The painter uses unexpected composition and fleeting various poses to outline the posture of the waves, and set off the unyielding spirit of the people on the ship to fight against nature. In "Legend of Magic Strings", it becomes dynamic, and the mother takes the infant child on a boat trip, demonstrating the greatness of motherhood.

"Kanagawa Surfing"

Saito Kiyoshi's prints According to Travis Knight in an interview, it is the master printmaker Kiyoshi Saito that has the greatest influence on the artistic creation of "Legend of Magic Strings". Most of his paintings are known for architecture, and all the houses can withstand life.

One of Saito Kiyoshi's prints

#From Director’s Answer# Great Strange: There are many Ukiyo-e, paper crafts, monsters and legends in the film. Apart from "Old Soma Castle" and "Kanagawa Surfing Chart", are there other Ukiyo-e works in it? Travis Knight: Visually, we did borrow a lot of inspiration from Ukiyo-e. Just like the "Kanagawa Surfing Picture" you said, we used it at the beginning of the movie. But one of the most critical sources of visual enlightenment is actually Saito Kiyoshi, an artist in Japan in the 1920s. One interesting thing about Saito Kiyoshi is that he was originally a traditional Japanese woodblock printing process, but he himself was inspired by many Western painters, such as Picasso. Therefore, he used the traditional woodblock printing technology of the East for reference, and the modern art methods and concepts of the West, combining the two to create his own works of art. This has inspired me deeply. In this way, we can also combine old and fresh, Eastern and Western things, and then make truly new things and complete a cross-cultural experiment.

According to IMDB data, the folklore "The Ghost of the Child" refers to Takahata's animation "Monster Onitaro" (ゲゲゲのKitaro, 1968). Where can I refer to it? By comparison, Kubo’s hair and eye-blind look is a copy of Kitaro. On the other hand, the predecessor of the Kitaro manga in the Zhizhiju version was "Kitaro", which was created between 1933 and 1935 and was adapted from the folk story "Zi Yu You Ling" (子育て幽霊). The mother-daughter drama at the opening of "Legend of Magic Strings" should also draw on the mother and daughter in the painting "The Ghost of the Child" by Yawatahama, I guess.

"The Ghost of Ziyu"

"Monster Onitaro"

When the monster "Tuoyun" performed an origami story, Kubo made a paper spider. The model should be the monster "Tuoyun." It is a giant spider with a grimace and a tiger body, and it can be transformed into a beauty and a teenager. According to legend, the Japanese samurai Gen Raimitsu encountered a cloud on the way to find the big skeleton. The latter turned into a seduce samurai, but was eventually seen through and returned to his original form. The battle between the paper samurai and the paper spider in "Legend of Magic Strings" can be regarded as a reproduction of this fight.

The monster "Boshan" similarly, Kubo also made a big yellow chicken, this is the monster "Boshan". According to legend, "Boshan" is a fire-breathing chicken. It is said that the eggs laid by chickens that have been raised for more than seven years will become "Boshan" after hatching. It will break out of its shell on its own, like a snake when it is born, will crawl under the floor of the house, grow in the dark, and then become like a chicken, but this process will never be seen. After it grows into a chicken, it starts to move. Will suck the blood of sleeping people little by little, and eventually kill people. The hen that gave birth to "Boshan" will crowed like a rooster. At this time, the eggs must be burned immediately and the hens must also be killed.

The monster "Giant Skeleton" & Ukiyo-e "The Old City of Soma" Travis Knight once said that he was deeply influenced by stop-motion animation master Ray Harryhausen, and said that the movie "Sinbad" "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, 1959) is his childhood favorite. The giant skeleton in "Legend of Magic Strings", I previously thought it was taken from the skeleton soldiers designed by Harryhausen for the movie "Jason and the Argonauts". Tim Burton also just appeared in "Peace "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children) pays tribute. But when you see the second painting below, you know that it is more derived from the "giant monster" in Ukiyo-e "Old Soma Castle" (Soma no Koneri) by Kuniyoshi Utagawa. This painting is now also a Japanese decoration. Famous paintings.

Copycats from "The Old City of Soma" in "Legend of Magic Strings"

"Soma Old City" Genuine

Main scenes in the Japanese drama "Okawabata Detective Agency"

Legend has it that the Giant Skeleton is not friendly. Its huge body is made up of undead bones that died on the battlefield due to starvation or battle, so the Giant Skeleton looks depressed. The giant skeletal monster in "Legend of Magic Strings" also looks sick, slow and sloppy.

Movie "Prince Jason Fights the Demons"

#From Director’s Answer# Daqi Special: Looking at the interview, you were greatly influenced by Ray Harryhausen, and said that "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) was the most important thing in your childhood. Love the video. Which inspirations in the film were inspired by him? I originally thought the big skull was, but the big skull looks like UTAGAWA Kuniyoshi's painting "The Ruins of Sōma Palace" (相马旧王城).

Travis Knight: In fact, both inspired me. The initial inspiration indeed came from Ray Harryhausen and his various monster movies, such as "Jason and the Golden Fleece" , in which his most iconic moment was a live-action actor Jason confronting a whole group of skeleton warriors, and then This clip was produced on-site and became a freeze-frame effect. The freeze-frame props or dolls you can see are very small, such as Kubo, which is only more than 20 centimeters, and the larger ones, such as the Beetle, are only about 45 centimeters. Animators are often much larger than dolls, which makes it easier to adjust and shoot on-site. We all love these monster images created by Ray Harryhausen, and we did use these inspirations in "Legend of Magic Strings" as a tribute to him. But we also tried our best to be better than him. For example, we actually made the prototype of the skeleton in the movie bigger, taller than the animator. As far as I know, this should be the first stop-motion animation. The doll is bigger than a real person. It is really tall. We made it nearly 5 meters and weighs 200 kg. The animator has to climb a ladder to adjust each one. The movement and position of the head of the frame. It is a fusion of the two inspirations you mentioned, but mainly Ray Harryhausen.

Monster "Hua Whale" "Hua Whale" is a type of monster on the sea in Japanese legend, also known as "bone whale". Similar to a whale skeleton, it is said that anyone who sees it will bring misfortune. However, in "Legend of Magic Strings", Kubo and the monkey escaped from blizzard in the belly of a frozen whale, but they resembled the "Whale" in appearance.

In the monster "Night Sparrow" , Kubo creates a group of sparrows and flies with a real sparrow. In Japanese legends, this is a bit like a group of "night sparrows". They are like ordinary sparrows, they only appear at night (similar to bats). They often appear in remote mountain passes and woods, in clusters and noisy sounds. . Once flying into the cuffs of passers-by, that person will face misfortune, so people often close their cuffs when they travel to places where sparrows gather.

Look at the cuffs of this buddy, finish playing

The octopus at the bottom of the sea should have nothing to do with Japanese legends. It is more derived from the piranha in "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986), and Ray Harryhausen for the movie "The Deep Sea Monster" (It Came from Beneath the Sea, 1955) designed the big octopus, it seems that the combination of the two is the source of inspiration for the monster.

There should be no such character in the Japanese legend of the Moon King , unless it is the murder teacher in "Assassination Classroom"... The character "Moon King" appears in Terry Gilliam's version of "The Adventures of Bragging King" (The Adventures of In Baron Munchausen, 1988), Robin Williams’ head plays the Moon King, which is designed like a man-made satellite, which is equivalent to the moon in "Le voyage dans la lune" (Le voyage dans la lune, 1902). The Moon King in "Legend of Magic Strings" appears as a Japanese old man, but his appearance seems to be a reference to the late British actor Peter Gusin, who often appeared in horror films. Recently, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) also used CG to restore his former Tarkin role. This is of course my wishful thinking. I also think that the old lady in the village is like Takakura Ken.

"The Adventures of the Bragging King"

Peter Gusin

After the Moon Beast, the Moon King turned into a monster, he felt like the head of Alien (1979) and Piranha (Piranha, 1978), plus Ray Harryhausen for Clash of the Gods (Clash of the Gods). The snake-shaped Medusa tail designed in Titans, 1981).

Ray Harryhausen and his snake-shaped Medusa model

Friends who don’t know the old man Harryhausen can find two albums translated by Captain Van Cleef-"The Film Concept Art of Ray Harryhausen" and "The Movie Fantastic Scrapbook of Ray Harryhausen: Sixty" "Models, Paintings and Memories in Five Years of Film Art", both books were published by Hou Lang, which are very valuable for collection. Traditional Japanese Origami Finally, I want to talk about the Japanese art of origami in the film. Although China has used paper 600 years earlier than Japan, and has its own origami tradition. But at present, Japan is indeed the best origami country in the world, and a large number of origami artists have been born. Kubo in "Legend of Magic Strings" is also such an artist. Japanese traditional origami was first seen in the Edo period (1603-1867). The earliest documentary record is the origami work "male butterfly and female butterfly" mentioned by Ihara Nishitsuru in 1680.

Kubo enters the village and uses a few shots to show the greatness of paper crafts-paper dragon dance, paper lanterns, paper umbrellas, paper baskets and paper fans

This scene also made a "paper sailboat" out of leaves

The most famous origami art is undoubtedly the Thousand Paper Cranes. The legend of Thousand Paper Cranes also originated from Japan. For example, if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, your wish will come true. In Japan, the crane is a sacred creature. Now, paper cranes are used to pray and bless, representing peace and health. In "Legend of Magic Strings", the creator used golden herons twice, used them to carry the souls of the dead, and sent them wherever they wanted to go. Similar to the mourning function of the Chinese Kongming Lantern, at the end of the film, you can see the golden heron used for the "Royal Basin" and the paper lantern appearing at the same time.

In Kubo’s dream, he saw a paper house equipped with a helmet. Isn’t the paper house here just the current paper three-dimensional puzzle building model? You can see them in many Japanese craft shops.

It is said that part of the puppeteers in the Lycra Studio were asked to take an origami class, and the other part went to the Ruigang History Museum to watch an origami exhibition. The animator Kevin Perry was responsible for several origami scenes, and the animation director Brad Schiff required that the origami must be both functional and fantasy: "The first step in making an origami animation is to disassemble the real origami and study the form and "Folding method." He said, "With a basic understanding, the next step is technical testing-faithfully using animation to present the process of origami. Technical testing should be shown to the director before discussing the emotional performance of the shot, such as the director. It may be more elegant or angry."

Even the two company logos at the beginning of the film are in origami form

View more about Kubo and the Two Strings reviews

Extended Reading
  • Lea 2021-11-23 08:01:13

    Very ordinary. The story is a Western-style take for granted. There is no touching point in the play. I want to make up for it with the pictures and the bridge, but it is not successful.

  • Rosendo 2022-03-23 09:01:52

    Just looking at the Japanese elements in the picture is really innovative, and it is very strange to watch the whole English and the story together. Orientalism in the eyes of Westerners can only be said to be nondescript, and I personally don't like it. In addition, although I can explain this and that, I can't help but say "that's obviously Shamisen"

Kubo and the Two Strings quotes

  • The Sisters: Kubo, we've been waiting for you for so long.

  • Kubo: Don't you ever say anything encouraging?

    Monkey: I encourage you not to die.

    Kubo: [Mockingly] I encourage you not to die.