No Man

大鬧天宮 / Dà nào tiān gōng (Havoc in Heaven)

113 in x of animated feature film history Release: 1964 Country: China Director: Wan Laiming

“The story is based on the earliest chapters of the Ming Dynasty shenmo novel Journey to the West. The main character is Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, who rebels against the Jade Emperor of heaven.

Wan Guchan, of the Wan Brothers and one of the animators of the feature film Princess Iron Fan, began planning the production of Havoc in Heaven––sometimes called Uproar in Heaven––after its release in 1941. However, the project was delayed for over a decade after the Japanese capture of Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and later by the Chinese Civil War.

Wan Laiming returned to Shanghai as director of Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1954, and production of Havoc in Heaven resumed shortly thereafter. The first part of the film was completed in 1961 by Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan. The second part was completed in 1964 with the assistance of Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan. Both parts of the film were screened together for the first time in 1965. This was the last major animated film of the Second Golden Era of Cinema of China. A year later, the entire industry was effectively shut down by the Cultural Revolution.

The name of the movie (大闹天宫) became a colloquialism in the Chinese language to describe someone making a mess. Countless cartoon adaptations that followed have reused the same classic story Journey to the West, yet many consider this 1964 iteration to be the most original, fitting and memorable.

The film won great acclaim after putting on the screen. It received Best Film Award at the 13th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the 12th London International Film Festival respectively, enjoying high reputation both at home and abroad.

At the time, the film was also used as a joke metaphor for the ‘havoc’ being caused by Mao Zedong (the monkey) in ‘heaven’ (China).”

(source) (source)

Havoc in Heaven is available on YouTube.

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