Movie Review: "30,000 Miles from Chang'an"
An Epic Chinese Animation *Spoiler Alert*
Recently, I had the chance to enjoy “Thirty Thousand Miles from Chang’an” a Chinese animation film. My friends were super hyped about it but I had my doubts. Nicely put, the modern Chinese entertainment industry didn’t exactly have a good rep, and animated films in general were an entirely different level of artistic mastery.
I followed my friends into the theater with a dubious heart. Two hours, forty-seven minutes and fifty-three seconds later, I had to admit: I was wrong. There is still hope for the C-entertainment industry.
Before going into the details of my review, I would like to make a disclaimer: everything in this review is purely based on my own highly subjective opinions. Film is an art form, which means it is the product of someone or a group of someone’s vision of a story. I respect each individual’s aesthetic tastes and unique interpretations [of a story].
Now a little bit of background on the titular city: Chang’an. Chang’an (modern day Xi’an) a famed city with longstanding history, symbolic of China itself. Literally meaning “long peace,” it’s no wonder that Chang’an was the imperial capital of multiple dynasties, including two of the most influential: the Han and the Tang dynasties.
The backdrop is set in the Tang dynasty (ca. 618-907 AD) and the actual events of the movie revolve around the time of Emperor Xuanzong’s forty-four year reign, a period revered by many as the Golden Age and also the beginning of the downfall of the glorious Tang dynasty. It was truly “the best of times, the worse of times” and the An Shi Rebellion (755-763 AD) marked this turning point in history. Eight years of civil war took a heavy toll on the once glorious dynasty, but that’s a rather long story so we’ll just leave it at that.
Back to our movie review. In a nutshell, the near three hour long movie can be summed up with one sentence: “Memories of my best friend, the legendary ‘Immortal Poet’ Li Bai -by Gao Shi.”
The Good
Controversies and historical inaccuracies aside, it was undeniably exciting to see the historical figures I’d only heard about in history class brought “to life” onscreen. Albeit the movie was the process of nearly all my imagined idols’ images being shattered into a million pieces, it was still an awe-inspiring experience to watch so many legendary figures gathered together onscreen. Usually I don’t process the fact that all these famous historical figures actually lived in the same era. In modern day terms, it would be the equivalent of all the top K-pop idols gathered on one stage. Epic, right?
The dialogue is laden with poems from the famed “Three Hundred Tang Poems,” it’s pure delight “witnessing” the context these poems were composed in. Poetry was a natural part of their speech, second nature to the point that almost everyone could compose a poem. One of the most memorable sequences from the movie was Li Bai’s passionate composition of the famed《將進酒》(“Bring in the Wine”). Words cannot describe the visuals, kudos to the artists for bringing the poem to life.
The scenery is absolutely b-e-a-yootiful, from the breathtaking grandeur of Chang’an to the charming riverside city Yangzhou, from snowy mountains at the edges of the empire, to the quiet serenity of a countryside home, the audience is taken on a spell-bounding journey to revisit the glorious dynasty of bygone times.
The film really exemplifies traditional Chinese values like: loyalty, honor, faith (keeping promises). After their initial meeting, Li Bai and Gao Shi go their separate ways to Yangzhou and Chang’an, respectively. Li Bai gallops into the sunset calling out that they should meet again in one year’s time. To me, this didn’t seem like a serious promise but rather a friendly way to bid farewell to an acquaintance. However, Gao Shi took this promise to heart and made his way to Yangzhou one year later to fulfill his promise.
The creatives really captured the essence of the Chinese spirit. The characters set out into the world as ambitious youths, brimming with confidence and vigor, ready to change the world for the better → to being beaten down again and again by the cruel realities of the world, the prejudices of hierarchical society, the corruption of the system, etc. → to coming to peace with the fact that life might not work out the way they hope and learning to make lemonade with the lemons they’re dealt.
There’s an underlying message that many things are left up to fate. Being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing can lead to glory, but at the same time, glory cannot be demanded. Take our main character Gao Shi for example, he spent most of his life practicing martial arts, studying, venturing out a bit and returning home, toiling in the fields just trying to make ends meet. He could’ve spent his whole life in this repetitive recluse, but the strings of fate eventually pushed him onto the position of high-ranking military official.
Another aspect I really liked was the movie’s portrayal of the open-minded and carefree spirit of the Tang dynasty people. I was reminded of a saying: 乘興而來，興盡而返 (chéng xìng ér lái，xìng jìn ér fǎn), which can be roughly translated as: acting [on impulse] when one wants to, leaving when the impulse has been fulfilled.
This saying originates from a story of the free-spirited souls of the Wei, Jin Southern and Northern dynasties. Wang Huizhi woke up in the middle of a winter night, the weather finally cleared up after several days of snowfall. He opened the window and saw a beautiful moon shining in the sky. He ordered a table prepared and enjoyed a drink under the night sky, reciting poems and relishing in the snowy sights.
A thought suddenly crosses his mind: wouldn’t this be more enjoyable with some nice music? He knew just the person for the occasion, his good friend Dai Kui, skilled in music and the arts. Wang Huizhi then thinks, why don’t I visit him right now? And with that, he set out to visit Dai Kui. It’s a long journey from his home to Dai Kui’s residence.
After a long night the boat finally docks near Dai Kui’s residence, but Wang Huizhi doesn’t meet his friend and sets course to return home immediately. When his servants ask him why he doesn’t even say hello to his friend after making such an arduous journey to get there. Wang Huizhi replies, “I came here on a whim, now that impulse has been fulfilled, so it is not important whether I meet him or not.”
The Bad (IMHO)
Compliments aside, the modern interpretations of “historic figures/traditions” vastly differs from actual history. Not trying to point fingers here, but I do think this factor bears the most responsibility for the ruined images of my idols T-T
Of course, this isn’t a documentary so there’s no need to get all confrontational about historical accuracy. After all, who can really say they know what historical figures/places were like? It’s impossible to meet them in person and the ancient cities are long gone now.
Another aspect that threw me off was the proportions of the characters. It was…as if the characters literally walked out of those Tang dynasty paintings in museums…which basically means they all had terrible proportions by my aesthetic standards. An astounding upper to lower body proportion of 6:4 or 5:5 in certain frames…most of the women looked like ceramic Tang dynasty female figurines…the horses were quite plump and stout as well…to sum it up, the film had very distinctive character designs.
Li Bai (my biggest idol and the idol of many) was “different from anyone else I’ve ever met” quote our main character Gao Shi. But my idol was depicted as an ADHD drunkard slightly wonky in the head…essentially Li Bai was portrayed as the iconic Disney princess: a song poem for almost every scene, an ability to communicate with animals (cranes), and his own rules about the world.
Conclusion
As with everything else, there were good and bad things about this film but overall I’d say it was an excellent movie. The team behind this definitely put their heart and soul into this project, shout out to them for bringing this epic story to the silver screen!
I’m not overly fond of the whole rating thing since it doesn’t really make sense to me, everyone has different tastes, so what I think is great might not necessarily be great to someone else. That being said, I guess I should still comply with the standards and give this a rating. I’ll go with 4.2/5 stars.
Not everyone will like this film, but I think some part of the story will touch everyone’s heart.
*Trailer linked here for your convenience*