In 1983, Shanghai Animation Film Studio's third color animated feature film "Tales from the Heavenly Book" was born. It is as famous as "Havoc in Heaven" and "Nezha Hao Hai".

As an animation with the reputation of "a culmination of China's excellent traditional culture", "Tian Shu Qi Tan" was very popular with the audience after its release, and many of its storylines have also become the favorites of many "post-70s" The collective childhood memory of the "post-80s generation".

Comparison of picture quality between the TV broadcast version and "Tian Shu Qi Tan 4K Commemorative Edition"

"Tian Shu Qi Tan" is based on the Chinese classical mythological novel "Ping Yao Zhuan", retaining, It adapted some characters from the novel and incorporated many traditional folk tales.

The film tells such a story:

For three thousand years, the god Yuan Gong has guarded the Book of Heaven and fulfilled his duties.

But at a Yaochi gathering, Mr. Yuan was told that he was a "low-ranking official" and could not attend. Mr. Yuan, who was left alone, had a little temper, so he wanted to take a look at the Book of Heaven while the Jade Emperor was away.

After Yuan Gong opened the Heavenly Book, he found that there were 108 spells recorded in the Heavenly Book, so he decided to share the contents of the Heavenly Book as stated in the book, "The way of heaven is selfless and will be passed down to future generations."

So, Mr. Yuan secretly descended to earth and carved the spells in the book on the stone wall of Baiyun Cave in Yunmeng Mountain.

And taught 108 of the spells to his apprentice "Dansheng".

However, the world is not peaceful: businessmen and monks have their own agendas, and the emperor's officials are mediocre and corrupt from top to bottom.

Three fox demons stole Yuan Gong’s elixir and turned into humans. They stole the Book of Heaven, deceived and abducted, and caused a lot of trouble in the human world.

In the end, Dansheng held the Book of Heaven to eliminate disasters for the people, battled wits and courage with the fox monster, and saved the common people.

Although Mr. Yuan was kind-hearted, he still violated the laws of heaven for "revealing heaven's secrets" and was fined to guard the stone wall book for life and not to have contact with mortals. And whenever the incense burner smokes and makes a sound, he must go to heaven to report his work.

The story is not complicated, but "Tales from the Heavenly Book" is very well-made and contains a lot of traditional Chinese culture.

For example, "Book of Heavenly Stories" draws on artistic elements such as paintings, sculptures, toys, and operas in traditional Chinese culture, brings together many folk images, uses a large number of traditional folk music as background music, and incorporates the Little Emperor The amazing "Hundred Birds Paying Attention to the Phoenix" showcases folk activities such as stilt walking, dragon and lion dancing.

The gardens, palaces, courtyards, and landscapes in the film follow the style of the "Wumen School of Painting", using meticulous brushwork and heavy colors to draw the cultural landscape, and using elegant ink to draw the natural landscape.

In terms of character design and modeling, "Book of Heavenly Stories" is also unique.

Many of the characters in the film come from opera facial makeup.

"New Mortal Cultivation of Immortality" is launched today! "Mortal IP" is restored and the world of immortality is recreated! Advertisement

The New Mortal's Cultivation of Immortality

View details

The image of Mr. Yuan resembles that of Guan Gong on the opera stage. His fiery red eyebrows are slanted into his temples and he is dressed in white. Upright and awe-inspiring.

The county magistrate is based on the image of a buffoon. He is skinny and has an exaggerated pointed rat face and rat beard. Even the accessories of the black gauze hat are shaped like copper coins, highlighting his short-sightedness and insatiable greed.

The appearance of the little male protagonist Dansheng is based on the traditional New Year painting dolls, with two cheeks of blush, making him look festive and lively.

The little emperor's shape is based on folk toys. His neck is like a thin wooden stick, his huge head can rotate freely, and his whole body is so round that his legs are invisible, like a puppet that can be manipulated by others.

Even the three foxes have their own representatives:

The blue fox demon is a white-faced scholar who is lazy and lazy; the pink fox demon has a big blush on his cheeks and looks like a heroine; The black fox demon looks like an old lady, with those scheming little eyes, he doesn't look like a good person no matter how he looks at it.

In addition to the story and production, this restoration is also worth knowing.

As early as 2018, relevant staff began restoration work.

Because there is no way to directly convert old films electronically, they can only be corrected frame by frame. Some lenses have been detached and the scan will be broken, so the staff re-glued them bit by bit.

The sound restoration of the film is very complicated. The restoration team separated the sound from the mono channel, which is equivalent to extracting all the monochromes from a painting by hand. They also wanted to retain the "sound" in the old version of the music. Taste", following the original special timbre, while re-recording the missing music.

After the team overcame many difficulties, we can now hear the surround sound effect of "Tales from Heaven" in the theater.

The charm of the film and the deep meaning contained in it are still recommended to everyone to experience it with their own eyes, especially if they have not seen it when they were children.