Lotus Lantern Langern Chinese Animation Box Set 6 VCD Video CD Sealed Rare Anime.

Very cool Boxset of VCD (1-6) All original packaging, even the original chinese price tag of $25.00

Director – Chang Gwang Xi – 1999 – China – Cert. N/C U – 85m

*1/2

A boy must rescue his goddess mother from Heavenly wrath invoked when she fell for his father, a mortal – available to rent online in the UK & Ireland as part of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio Retro in the Chinese Cinema Season 2021 from Friday, February 12th to Wednesday, May 12th

Immortal Goddess Sanshengmu (voice: Xu Fan) falls in love with mortal man Liu Yanchang and leaves Heaven to pursue love with him on Earth. This goes down badly with her brother Yang Jian (Jiang Wen) since it’s against the Law of Heaven, so he sends an army of hounds down to earth in pursuit. She is however able to evade capture by keeping a lotus lantern close to her to make sure it’s not accidentally lit as this would give away her location.

Seven years later, while boating on a river with her young son Chenxian (Yu Pengfei), the lantern’s accidental lighting reveals her whereabouts to her brother, who promptly whisks the boy to heaven. When she arrives to demand her son’s return, her brother instead imprisons her in a mountain.

The adventures of young boy then teen protagonist Chenxian (Yang Shuo) follow as he (eventually) attempts to rescue his mother, with the nonsensical narrative throwing in numerous other characters seemingly at whim. These include young girl then teen Ga Mei (Ning Jing) likewise kidnapped by Yang Jian, in her case to encourage her father to sculpt a giant rock, and the Monkey King (Chen Peisi) – now seated on a floating lotus flower like the Buddha – who sends Chenxian off to ride to his destiny on a white horse.

A volcano erupts near Ga Mei’s village where natives clad in loincloths later pastiche a Busby Berkeley dance routine. There are echoes of Disney: Ave Maria from Fantasia (episode by Wilfred Jackson, 1940) as fireflies float through a forest and The Lion King (Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, 1994) in both overhead shots of flying cranes and a sequence where Chenxiang’s mother appears in the sky to offer him serious life advice.