To me, this movie is perfection.

Just perfect...

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The first thing I should mention about BIG FISH AND BEGONIA is that it is visually stunning. I do not recall seeing many Chinese animated productions (although I wouldn't be surprised if I had inadvertently stumbled upon one without realizing it), but this is one of the most visually impressive I've seen from the country. Like a magnet, it seduces you from the first frame and keeps you entranced for all 100 minutes. In a way, this film reminded me a bit of Laika's recent KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS. That film, while not a tightly plotted story, was nonetheless so visually stimulating that one could not help but be glued to their seats throughout. BIG FISH is the same way.Describing the plot, it's sort of a mixing pot of THE LITTLE MERMAID with shades of SPIRITED AWAY and Chinese mythology. Basically, this film imagines an "alternate world" way beneath the ocean -- a sort of mythological Chinese flavored kingdom whose inhabitants are some sort of humanoid "spirits" with powers who are responsible for guarding the balance of nature. One of its residents, 16-year-old Chun, participates in a sort of "coming of age" ceremony, in which she is transformed into a crimson colored dolphin and swims to the surface world. Here she comes face to face with a human boy and his little sister. But the visit turns tragic when she is trapped in a fisherman's net. The boy courageously rescues her, only to drown. Feeling responsible, Chun travels beyond the boundaries of her village to some sort of one-eyed demon (Lengpo, the Lady of Souls), where she strikes a Faustian bargain. The boy will be reborn as a dolphin, whom she will have to tame and grow until he is old enough to return to hid world. But the price is two-fold. First, she must give up half of her life force to revive the boy in question (whom she names Kun), and whatever pain he receives, she'll receive too. The second and more dangerous outcome involves unnatural disasters such as rainstorms, maelstroms, and even snow which threaten to destroy her world's existence. Only her closest friend Qiu, who secretly harbors a crush on her, might be able to set things right.As mentioned, BIG FISH AND BEGONIA is absolutely breathtaking to look at. The film is also rich with metaphorical imagery, particularly when talking about matters such as life and death. In one scene, for instance, when an old man dies, he is reborn as a tree. His similarly deceased wife, incidentally, is some sort of peacock who comes to rest on the tree in question. In terms of character development, BIG FISH AND BEGONIA isn't very heavy on it, but Qiu, oddly enough, emerges as the most interesting of the characters. When we first meet him he appears to be somewhat mischievous and playful. But he also has a very serious dedicated side to him, and ultimately goes to great lengths to help the person dearest to him. The rest of the cast don't stand out as much, but with the possible exception of one fairly negligible potential baddie (who lives in a rat-infested sewer), nobody comes across as truly unsympathetic. Only issue is that there are a plethora of minor characters who only have about five minutes of screentime, to the point where we don't get to know them as well, but that's my only issue.The dub by Studiopolis is well done for the most part, with no noticeably bad performances, although I DID detect some mistimed lines at least in the first half hour -- I do find it jarring to see a character's mouth start flapping only for no sound to come out until the second one, and this unfortunately sometimes happens in the beginning. Thankfully, this problem disappears in the second half, and other than that, as mentioned, everyone plays their roles well. Stephanie Sheh and Johnny Yong Bosch, in particular, do great turns as the lead characters, Chun and Qiu, respectively.Perhaps the best way to describe this film is that it is more visual poetry rather than a cohesive plot, but it also offers a sincere heart that somehow manages to win the viewer over. The ending is also bittersweet and will surely wrench tears. (I know I was crying toward the end!) Directors Lian Xuan and Zhang Chun spent more than 12 years(!) working on this film, most of it being a series of starts and stops. According to the making-of-featurette, this film started off as a wildly successful 7 minute short made in Flash, but acquiring funds for expanding it into a feature proved problematic, and nearly disbanded the animation studio B & J. So what saved the day? Crowdfunding, that's what. The amount of interest from said crowdfunds prompted a Chinese distributor to take a chance and fund the film. Xuan and Chun's lengthy labor of love was greatly rewarded: the film was a smash hit in China, the second most successful animated film over thereI wouldn't say this movie reaches the echelons of say, Studio Ghibil, but it doesn't have to. If you're an animation fan and want to see something this breathtaking and emotional, you can't go wrong with this one. Every second of it will have you nailed to your seat.

A beautiful movie, this is rare in China in recent years，however，it was treated unfairly in china,so i come here to back Da Hai.I hope you can also love this movie. I don't want to say other words,my English is poor but 10 lines needed， so i chose to copyI heard about Big fish & begonia (Da Hai) in 2013 and I was shocked by the 5-minute trailer at that time. At first sight I thought it was a Ghibli movie again, but then I learned about that the core story got some inspiration from some ancient Chinese proses, such as "A Leisurely Tour" by Chuang-tzu and ShanHai Jing. As a Chinese, I know I can't describe my feeling perfectly in English, but I just want to say that Big Fish & Begonia (Da Hai) is a very moving and wonderful movie which can make me cry every time. It tells a story about salvation, love and growth. It's totally Chinese, from these good pictures to the touching story. I hope one day the movie can be released in some other countries, so that more and more audience can enjoy its beauty and be moved by it.

When I walked out of the cinema last Sunday, I heard a man said to his girlfriend behind me, 'A waste of money, innit?' Many people says that. I've read a review before watching it, and the reviewer mainly held that the scenes were certainly beautiful, and we could see that the crew had dedicated all for it, but according to the plot, Chun ignored her family, her friends, ignored Qiu who genuinely loved her, even her entire world, to pay the life back to a human boy who had once saved her, and this needed to be reconsidered. Well, I admit that this animation is not perfect, whether it's the plot, or the characters, or the pictures. But I feel that this work should be judged in a purer way, and not to focus too much on whether the deeds of Chun were 'worthy' or not. The concept of 'worthy' is different for a teen and an adult, and here, for a sixteen-year-old girl, what she did was worthy. It's extremely childish, childishly selfish, but it's what she believed was right, and she wasn't all unreasonable. Let's think in another way. What were all the grown-ups doing? Trying to eliminate Kun. Why? Because he saved Chun, and Chun wanted to pay her debt of gratitude, which caused all the disorders of their world. Was this reasonable then? Couldn't they spare a bit of the effort they paid to kill Kun to hold the situation back when it first became urgent? They probably could. Chun actually stopped the sky from cracking by giving everything she had to her grandpa. If all others had stood together like how they built the bridge, it probably would have costed less to do it. But they gave their all to kill another life they thought was blamable, and if they had succeeded, Chun would have died too, and they would be sad and would regret, and someone else would lose half a lifetime to bring her back. In fact, no one in this entire animation was absolutely reasonable, neither there was in the real world. I suggest that we put the adult logic away for a while, and appreciate the effort the crew paid and the pure 'life for life' values. I'm not comparing it to other Chinese animations because I haven't watched them, but it deserves 3 stars for pictures, 3 stars for voice and music, and 1 star for thestory.

I had the chance to see "Big Fish and Begonia" in the cinema yesterday. I was a little bit disappointed. Liang created a beautiful fantasy world and quite an original story background. Also the animations look fantastic. There are indeed many things to like about this movie. So it's all the more of a shame that the story is not very well told. Cuts between scenes always seems to come at the wrong moment and a lot of the characters and dialogues are redundant in regard to the main story. A lot of the movie is just a chain of depictions of cute little details in Liang's fantasy world. It feels a little bit like he tries so hard to be Miyazaki that he forgets all about the plot. Because of this, it's hard to get a feel for the movie. Which is a shame because it had a lot of potential. I hope that Liang's future works will try less to be Miyazaki and dare to be more Chinese. Although this movie may not be great, it might well be the start of a new age in Chinese animation cinema. I recommend this movie to people who are hugely into Chinese cinema and/or animation films. Otherwise, wait for something more worthwhile.