QS stands for “Quickshot”, a series of short form review/preview/opinion articles.
I had a very interesting experience with a pair of two animated movies last week.
I’d had the movie “Green Snake” on my Netflix watchlist for months and months, and finally decided to give it a watch. The first five minutes were a bit confusing, but I’m no stranger to in medias res storytelling, so it was fine. But then the title card appeared, and was written entirely in Chinese characters (no big surprise, it’s a Chinese animated film). Except…then there was a giant number ‘2‘. A quick Google search later, and I found my answer.
Green Snake is the sequel to a different animated film called White Snake.
Whoops!
Thankfully, White Snake could be rented on Amazon Prime, so $2.99 later, I was watching it. Then, the next day, I picked up where I’d left off with Green Snake and finished that one too. The duology I thought was only going to be a single film was complete.
And it was pretty good! Not amazing, but pretty good!
White Snake is heavily inspired by a classic Chinese folktale, “Legend of the White Snake“, and follows a snake demon named Blanca who loses her memory while tasked with assassinating an evil human warlord. While amnesiac, she befriends a human man named Xuan, who helps her realize that demons and humans can form a peace together with the two of them acting as a bridge. This shift in her priorities infuriates Blanca’s sister, Verta, who firmly believes that humans are evil and will do whatever it takes to force Blanca to see that. Meanwhile, the evil warlord plots his conquest.
In Green Snake, we see Blanca and Verta teaming up to try and take down a bigger foe, only for Blanca to be kidnapped and Verta to be forced into a messed-up pseudo-purgatory-like realm known as Asuraville. Determined to save her sister, Verta ends up having to tango with a huge demon-vs-human-vs-monster turf war not unlike Mad Max as she battles to escape Asuraville and save the soul of her kidnapped sister.
If you think those summaries make these sound like two very tonally-different movies…you’d be 100% correct. And yet, with the same extremely competent animation studio at the helm, a returning voice cast, and persistent narrative through threads, they actually flow decently well together. At the very least, they are quite entertaining.
I think that’s the crux of my praise for these films, actually. ‘Entertaining‘. You’re not going to be bored watching either of these movies. The visuals are quite stunning, and with an emphasis on action, you’ll be treated to multiple engrossing battle scenes and tense well-choreographed standoffs (a clash at the climax of the first film is a real highlight, and the sequel has some good chase scenes). The story beats aren’t necessarily anything revolutionary, nor are there any earth-shattering twists or surprises, but you can have a far worse time watching a movie than checking out this duology.
I will warn, however, to be prepared for a little bit of a cultural barrier.
See, these are first-and-foremost Chinese animated films made for a Chinese audience. An audience that would be intimately familiar with the mythological source material that serves as the duology’s inspiration. Because of that, the studio behind these films didn’t deem it necessary to slow down for a foreign audience, and I can’t blame them. I really don’t hold it as a fault of the movie. Not everything has to be made for everyone, and we’re honestly pretty lucky these movies got an English dub at all.
However, what this means is that the movie won’t often slow down to explain its worldbuilding, or make sure you know the names and affiliations of key characters, or help you catch up on the themes and plot. It’s nothing unintelligible, and it all makes sense by the time the credits roll, but in both films I found myself at multiple points going ‘what, who is that‘, or ‘why was this person doing that‘, or ‘wait they could always use that power‘. Expect some level of confusion jumping into this duology.
Also, these movies are decisively not for children, which is again not a flaw or anything, just something that stuck out to me considering Netflix sure seemed to think that was the age range to suggest. These aren’t gritty R-rated affairs or anything, but they both comfortably slot into the PG-13 range, which could catch you off guard if you aren’t prepared. Plenty of violent character deaths explicitly shown on-screen, a few creepy/unsettling moments, and a certain side character who shows up in both films and is animated in a…well, she’s animated in a way that’ll raise your eyebrows a bit.
Still, I have to again make it clear that these are both good films at their core. They aren’t a bad way to pass an afternoon, and bring with them plenty of great moments that’ll stick with you (I’ve already rewatched a few of the fight scenes), lots of flashy setpieces, interesting characters, and also a good soundtrack (only just mentioned it now, but it’s pretty solid). Verta is a really good character too, so I loved seeing her take center stage in Green Snake.
I’d recommend both of these films if you’re a fan of animated movies with lots of worldbuilding and action! Or just really pretty animation!
The Contrarian Corner 