Over-analysing Legend of Hei 2
Just wanted to appreciate all the little details that this movie has. It's worth rewatching many times to see and understand all these details since the movie doesn't really hold your hand during it, you have to understand it yourself (which I love so much, it's so refreshing). Please add your own notes if you have something to add! I love seeing everyone's interpretations.
HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE!
part 1: opening sequence, ~5 minutes long
I hope the name translations are right. Also, sorry for the quality of the photos, they're ass, but they're all I got right now.
Movie opens with a scene of a lizard capturing and eating a cricket and then freezing when a human appears. A metaphor about the relationship between elfins/nature and humans.
We're shown the ruomu tree from the very beginning, this tree is the reason why the Liu Shi (flowstone) sect was attacked. Last shot of this scene was Ling Yao approaching this tree. Next time we see the Liu Shi sect, the tree is gone.
The calm before the storm. Love the frog guy fishing.
Deep gong sound effect is played to indicate danger approacing, as both Ming Yue (bright moon) and Da Song (big pine) sense that there are people approaching the sect. Da Song gives Ming Yue permission to go investigate with a little hum. Ming Yue takes his sword out as he's running to investigate, seeing the humans as threaths.
The field showing a burst of wind as Ming Yue leaves the camera, indicating his death. The camera rotating slightly gives the watcher an eerie vibe (alongside with the tense music). Da Song sensing his death in the next shot and realising that this is an attack.
No one is prepared for the attack. Just shows how quickly a catastrophe like this can happen. The attack was less than four minutes long. The fact that a lot of the shots are happening simultaneously.
Fire dude melting the cord with his powers. His sleeves get burned. This guy in the background falling into the water as they're hit with the cord :((
The humans shoot the elfins to make sure that they're actually dead. Also, there are roots coming from the bullet holes.
This elfin turning into a small tree, indicating that she's still young :( in comparison Feng Xi's ginormous tree from the first movie. You can see her corpse in the background of other shots.
Fire guy and ice lady attacking together and thus making the whole area cloudy with mist.
Human shield. Smart way of making the scene bloodless: fire guy's shots immediately cauterize the wounds shut.
I love that not only does every single minor side character have a unique character design, but they all have their own personal power and fighting style. Even all the soldiers/mercenaries look different from each other.
Furry using shield (flowstone armour, created by Da Song), but he's not powerful enough to tank the bazooka shot, while later we're shown that Da Song can take same kind of hit without an issue. Really cool shield, it basically acts as a portal to the bullets and make them get shot back at the senders.
The sniper is able to predict where the elfins are going to be. This is apparently a real thing that a sniper scope can do in real life. I know that the colouring is possible in a sniper scope.
Absolutely gorgeous shot of Qing Quan (clear spring). Vey neat detail of her circling the humans to cut them. I've seen a theory about how Ling Yao was the one to teach or at least inspired Qing Quan to train double wielded swords. And that makes me feel things. Makes me feel sad things.
Qing Quan slicing a gun in half. You can also hear someone yell "what the-" in english right after this.
Beautiful slowmo shot that then continues in normal speed. Slowmo is rarely used in animation, big props for this movie for using it twice.
One of my favourite things about this movie is the cinematography. I love the camera angles, especially since everything is handdrawn. This is such a difficult angle and subject (bare feet) to draw, let alone animate. I do wonder what him being barefoot symbolises. Is it about showing his power (Da Song having no armour while the humans are decked out) or is it to show unpreparedness or vulnerability.
The humans not caring about their fallen brethren while the elfins collect theirs and warn each other of the danger.
This whole fight getting a parallel later (Chi Nian's fight) upsets me great deal. They were friends :( I'll go more into detail if I ever over-analyze that fight, it has so many character important details. Chi Nian lost two great friends in one go. I know they live in a fantasy world with way more violence, but I don't know how I'd live knowing my friend killed my other friend. That must hurt so much.
Qing Quan's sword is able to penetrate and break Da Song's shield (both made out of spirit energy, while the bullets aren't). Da Song's shocked by it and soon even more more shocked when he recognises Ling Yao (spirit distant [no clue how to make more sense of his name other than switching the character' places so it'd be distant spirit instead]). And it is Ling Yao and not the shapeshifting elfin (Ji Huang) because out of those two options, Ling Yao's the one who's capable of defeating Da Song.
Pararrel to Da Song's foot shot. I'm sad that there isn't another scene where Ling Yao walks (before the reveal). Would've been cool foreshadowing to connect the walking styles.
How heartless Ling Yao could be, to kill an old friend and his apprentices. Apprentices that he personally knew and saw grow up. It's mentioned in the film that he visited this sect a lot. All this death just for a cause. I absolutely adore betrayals in media. It's the perfect kind of angst for me.
Thunder and wind indicating Da Song's death. Something about first snow falling during such a tragic day like this is so upsetting. There's a saying "snow covers all sins" that means that sins are cleansed through forgiveness. And here we see a shot of the first snow getting swept away from the wind caused by Da Song's death.
The sound of the gong of despair and death is played again, followed by the sect being dead (heh) silent after the massacre. No more birds singing, no more crickets. All the candles are out and the sect is covered in darkness.