EVEN for those with little interest in cinema, ignoring the animation hit “Big Fish & Begonia” will be tough. Two weeks since its premiere July 8, the film directed by two Tsinghua University dropouts is still dominating Chinese social media.

    Latest figures on Sina Weibo, China’s largest Twitter-like service, show that posts related to the film have generated more than 3 billion clicks, and more than 2 million reviews.

    Beating Hollywood blockbuster “The Legend of Tarzan,” which was released in China on Tuesday, and powerful domestic rivals such as “Cold War II,” it has emerged as the most-discussed film on Weibo. The public recognition has also resulted in handsome box-office returns.

    While most Chinese-language movies are struggling in a market that has been lackluster of late, the 30-million-yuan (US$4.48 million) feature had raked in around 500 million yuan by Wednesday, according to the live box-office tracker Cbooo.cn.

    Despite drawing praise at some international festivals, “Big Fish & Begonia” is receiving a polarized audience at home.

    To supporters, the long-awaited feature is an unprecedented creation for the values it espouses and its breathtaking landscapes. But its critics complain that a romance triangle and flat dialogues ruin the storyline.

    Deeply rooted in Chinese mythology, the film is set in a wonderland that manages the human world. The fictional world is designed like a fortresslike residence in East China’s Fujian Province. The film opens when a lot of whales are seen slowly swimming in the sea. The narrator says the human soul is actually a fish whose journey across the ocean shows the different stages of life. The story then focuses on a young girl from the wonderland and her love for a boy from the human world.

    China isn’t short of such productions, commercially successful but criticized for content, so why the fuss over “Big Fish & Begonia?”

    “China has seen few domestic animation titles that accurately showcase oriental culture and history,” says Zuo Heng, an associate researcher with the China Film Art Research Center.

    “And, despite ‘Big Fish & Begonia’ bearing influences of Hayao Miyazaki (Japanese animation master), it has done a good job in maintaining its Chinese roots.”

    The roles inspired by ancient Chinese classic “Zhuangzi” and the mythology collection “The Classic of Mountains and Seas” are key highlights of the film, says Zhu Yuqing, founder of the Beijing-based film company Online Film Market and a veteran industry watcher.

    “But it has shortcomings. Some of the dialogues are too modern for an ancient Chinese setting,” he says. “The crew comprises mostly young people.”

    The long wait may explain more about the disappointment of many fans, who’ve waited for the film for more than a decade.

    Liang Xuan, one of the directors, said the tale came from two dreams in 2003, when he was still studying hydraulic engineering in Tsinghua.

    He saw a tiny fish growing bigger and bigger until it started to fly in the sky. In a later dream he found himself transformed into a big fish swimming in an ocean.

    Alongside his friend and then-art student Zhang Chun, Liang — without any prior filmmaking experience — turned the idea into a seven-minute flash footage that became a sensation online.

    In 2005, Liang quit the university and founded a studio with Zhang to pursue their artistic dream: to turn the idea into a feature-length animation film.

    “It was initially a story about the pursuit of freedom,” Liang recalled.

    As China’s film market had yet to soar then, the duo struggled for years to raise funds.

    The turning point came in 2013, when they succeeded in obtaining 1.58 million yuan from 3,996 netizens through a crowdfunding campaign. That soon drew the attention of Enlight Media, China’s largest private film company, which financed the production.

    “The project’s journey and the directors’ persistence to follow their hearts are touching,” says Wang Jing, a Beijing fan who has followed the project for a decade. “It proves ordinary people can realize their dreams even without professional experience. Honestly speaking, the film is a bit disappointing, but it still has an inspirational off-the-screen story,” she says.(China Daily)