Light Chaser Animation Studios Archives

Light Chaser Animation Studio’s Next Film is Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio! Teaser Trailer

For those unfamiliar with thie collection of spooky stories from China, Strange Tales from A Chinese Studio shows that ghosts are just as prominent in local folklore!

Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio Light Chaser Animation released a teaser to their next project over the weekend, and for fans of the book, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Amazon link), this news is very exciting! One of the most famous stories includes a short to which Tsui Hark’s 1987 A Chinese Ghost Story is based on. And as for what I assume to be an anthology series, just what other spooky tales can be offered can range from spectres just wanting a second chance at life to that of spirits taking vengeance! The date for this release is the summer of 2025!

With over 500 tales to choose from in the 12 volumes published, I can’t venture to guess just how many segments will be offered. If I was producing, I’d opt to select one story per book, and instead of making one movie, at least make it a trilogy. In the West, the only compilation I’m acutely aware of is The A, B, C’s of Death where 26 shorts are offered in just one work!

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White Snake 3: Afloat Needs To Surface in North America! Every Explosive Trailer Released.

The movie, White Snake 3, has made its debut in China, and hopefully the plan to bring this latest Light Chaser Animation to North America will be soon!

Release Date in China:
August 10th, 2024

Light Chaser Animation Studios continues to delight fans of the White Snake series with their latest entry, White Snake 3: Afloat (白蛇：浮生). While the literal translation of the title is “Floating Life,” “Afloat” or even “Rebirth” better captures the intended themes of renewal and emotional drift.

Whatever name you prefer, I can’t wait to see this next chapter! For those unfamiliar with the series, the first film is available online and on Amazon USA, while the second is streaming on Netflix. You can also check out my reviews of Part One and Part Two.

As for why these films feel disconnected, I suspect the North American distributor wasn’t aware this story was always intended as a trilogy.

This fantasy romance raises two big questions: Will the sisters reunite? And will Bianca (Xiao Bai, voiced by Zhe Zhang) see Xian (Tianxiang Yang) again? There’s a third thread too—according to the source material, the couple has a child! The ending of the first film teases this possibility, but in the sequel, Xian is sidelined when time travel complicates everything. During a climactic battle, Verta (Xiao Qing, played by Xiaoxi Tang) is hurled into a future that’s anything but welcoming.

In that timeline, the Baoqing Fox takes on a larger role in the chaos. While the trailers don’t reveal much about her involvement, what little we see is intriguing—and I’m eager to learn more.

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Chang’An, A City in Turmoil. It Was The Best of Times and Worst of Times.

For now, the movie Chang’an is available to purchase online via eBay or YesAsia as a Region 3 release until North American distributor Niu Vision Media figures out what to do.

Chang'An Movie Bluray R3 “The Times They Are A-Changin’” is a song that should be used if a dub of Chang’an ever gets released to North American Market. Its lyrics are perfect, but if that does not work, I’d suggest David Bowie’s song,“Changes,” to the distributor involved in editing. While it’s doubtful the Chinese producers would approve of it, I’d get the reference since this movie concerns how the capital of Shaanxi Province would undergo shifts in political power. This city is also known as Xi’an, and it’s historically significant because it was the original beating heart of a unified China.

All of it is the backdrop for the rather ambitious animated film by Lightchaser Studios. This work not only recounts the historical events that transpired but also tries to figure out the relationship two famous poets had as rebellions took place around them. They were sometimes involved in it and other times not.

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The Top Three Animated Films Playing During Chinese New Year, and White Snake Rebirth for this Summer!

What fans of Donghua animation can expect for this year are a bunch of great animated films, but our interest is with White Snake 3 than the others being offered.

White Snake Rebirth Teaser Poster Whether Light Chaser Animation Studios intentionally did not want to debut White Snake Rebirth during Chinese New Year or needed no more time, the good news is that it’s expected to be released Summer 2024! Not everyone will be aware of this film, and this release isn’t being all that well advertised right now.

That’s because not every city got to screen this studio’s last work, Chang’an: A Journey of Thirty Thousand Miles, to reveal this fact. This film had a very limited theatrical run, what’s presented is very much a blink, and you’ll miss it moment. Those people fortunate to see this movie will have seen the teaser. Even afterwards, there isn’t much talk about it on the forums and few animation news websites that I track.

For now, the films that are seeing love in China’s box office includes Boonie Bears: Time Twist, Ba Jie (a film I hope will get some America-side attention due to its theme of how to enter Buddhist heaven), and Huang Pi: God of Wealth Cat. The latter sounds interesting since it concerns a cat who gives out money! As for which new movie is making waves, Variety announced news that Sony Pictures has acquired the rights to distribute the sports live action comedy Yolo for international release.

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Three Chinese Films to be on the Lookout For! (And The Fantastic Umbrella Girl Too)

Quite often, Chinese New Year is when new films will be played to audiences worldwide, and what’s offered here are four selections we hope will begin production or play in 2024!

The Journey of Flower 2024 Movie Poster - Three Chinese Films to Look Out For in 2024 Although Chinese New Year is two months away, the question of what movies will get released is likely to at least include The Journey of Flower. The other three Chinese films include Chang’An, Kung Fu Hustle 2 and Umbrella Girl. While one is technically not even started production, I have hope that some news will be offered. As for the the former getting a wider distribution, it’d make sense to re-release this work during this holiday!

Chang’An was released in China over the Summer. As for why international distributors didn’t want to market it, the reason may well lie in the fact it’s not like a typical movie. Those who managed to see this work said it’s presented as vignettes with the characters reciting poetry. As for whether its like attending one of Shakespeare’s plays, I need to get my hands on a copy!

Even though Light Chaser Animation has been on a huge winning streak ever since White Snake, not every film gets the love it deserves. Tea Pets got tucked away on Tubi under a different title (Toys and Pets), and it’s a wonderful love story cum adventure. As for this studio’s latest, it apparently got a weekend screening at select cities during the month of October; I assume GKIDS holds the rights, and they will eventually deliver this movie to home video.

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New Gods: Yang Jian. Breaking Down the Bonus Features.

We look at the video extras that are included in this home video release of New Gods: Yang Jian, and yes, there’s even a foldout poster included!

New Gods Yang Jian Blu-ray + DVD — Available to pre-order on Amazon USA

Available to Stream on Amazon Prime, Google Play and Youtube and coming to Home Video on April 25th, 2023 courtesy of Shout! Factory.

It would be a shame if all the work put behind building the world presented in New Gods: Yang Jian gets limited to one movie. What’s presented as extras in the home video release gets into the finer points of why many realms exist. In the press interview with Ji Zhao, the director, he simplified the plot to be about this individual who can see the truth, but doesn’t fully understand what it all means.

The other details revealed help with how this works relates to New Gods: Nezha Reborn. Although he doesn’t say much about whether more films in this world will come, I hope it’ll one day happen.

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