The Trail of the Dragon
The eastern world is a myriad of mysteries to those ignorant of it, with its vibrant culture, exotic food and marvellous people. The Orient comprises of the countries of the far east — and out of these mainly Japan and China are home to diverse tastes, styles and traditions. The world without the east would have been a disaster. You might as well forget all about your cosy Sundays, curled up spent watching your favourite anime, slurping a steaming hot bowl of noodles. Let us take a tiny peek at how the east has marked the world for the best.
None of us can deny enjoying the awe-inspiring storyline, super-cool stunts and the tummy-tickling humour of the legendary movie series that showcased a fat huggable panda with cool tricks under his belt. It is obvious that the Kung-Fu Panda movie series is all about the Chinese martial art form kung-fu — no need to be a geek to get that. But, it’s not just the name that paints the obvious idea. Every miniscule part of the movie has China written all over it. For instance, the protagonist, Po, is a panda and unsurprisingly, the panda is the national animal of China. Remember the Furious Five, the seemingly fierce but fun, five protectors of Kung-fu — the tigress, monkey, mantis, crane and snake? These animals represent the five most important and popular styles of kung-fu, named after them, collectively called the Five-Form fist. Also, the snake, tiger and monkey also feature in the Chinese zodiac symbols. Master Oogway is a tortoise- hidden here is the existence of turtle style of kung-fu. The powerful and mighty Tai Lung is a snow leopard, a marker to the leopard style of kung-fu which is a modified version of the tiger one. The serene panda village on top of a mountain, filled with rolling pandas gorging on unlimited dumplings and noodles, as shown in the third movie, is actually inspired from the Qingcheng Mountain in the Chengdu region of China. This region is the habitat of the Giant Panda and is also believed to be the birthplace of Taoism- a Chinese philosophy based on humility, naturalness and simplicity. The panda village in the movie advocates living the natural way and is also known to possess the power to control chi. And Chi is the central underlying principle of Chinese medicine and Martial arts — widely known to be the life-force of everything in existence. Chi also featured in the Karate Kid, amongst many other Chinese elements. The background of the movie- the blooming flowers, falling petals, lofty mountains, white clouds- was carefully built to mirror China. The whole movie series revolves around the Chinese concepts of laughter, pain and inner peace, evident from the plot, characterisations and the protagonist himself. Even the colour theme; red and yellow — are the colours on the Chinese flag, and jade green- signifies the sacred Jade stones of China, considered as invaluable.
Kubo and the Two Strings is yet another such film- a stunning example of the Japanese influence. The story revolves around a young boy’s quest to find out more about his family origins and to save his homeland. The storyline is awe-inspiring with tragic twists and turns. Set in feudal Japan, the story has many Japanese elements combined to make for one fascinating tale. Origami — the art of paper folding is Kubo’s master craft. He does this through his magical samisen — a three-stringed musical instrument famous in Japan. On his quest, Kubo befriends a samurai who later turns out to be his father. The main antagonist is Kubo’s grandfather — the moon king who rules over the night sky. It is fascinating to see that the moon king — a representation of the moon god Tsukiyomi is considered evil. In Japanese mythology, Tsukiyomi is considered as a sacred god who keeps watching over them during the night.
These are only two instances, hand-picked from the umpteen ones in existence. Most movies that had taken shelter under the wing of Eastern influence have emerged successful. Big Hero 6 is one of the most lauded animation movies and its characters and the locations to bear a strong resemblance to modern Japan. The success of Indian movies like Dashavatharam, 7 am Arivu, Chandni Chowk to China and so on, are clear evidences showing how the East has shaped the tastes of us as audience and are definite pointers to the extent of eastern influence on us. So, next time when you binge watch seasons of anime while relishing your Chinese takeaway, don’t forget to pay homage to that part of the world, where the sun rises first, whose culture, practices and heritage have such a bearing on us, that our free time is, after all, a time saver for them.
This article was written for Festember: The Renaissance by rigved manoj, Divya S, Sandip Nair, Anurika Umasudan, Shivesh Sivakumar and Abhinaya S.B.
