Beautiful film and its soundtrack's excellence greatly impressed me Enchanting tales abound in the world that people can treasure and impart to others. Here is one of those stories, straight from China and about a century old. I also thought the legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, a beautiful, doleful, and moving love story set in China's Eastern Jin Dynasty, was beautiful. Various adaptations have turned the story into stage plays, operas, TV series, and movies, including this beautifully animated film that I watched online. And after watching it, I love it.
The film begins with a beautiful, intelligent young woman named Zhu Yingtai from Shangyu, Zhejiang, who is the only daughter of the wealthy noble Zhu family. Of course, in the original story, Yingtai is the youngest of nine siblings-eight boys and one girl. Well, anyway, after much effort, she convinced her father to let her disguise herself as a young man and travel to Hangzhou to study, because back then, women weren't allowed to go to school. With a servant girl named Xin Yin (disguised as a servant boy), Yingtai set off to school. During her journey, she encountered Liang Shanbo, a scholar from Kuaiji (now known as Shaoxing), in the same province, and his servant boy named Xi Jiu. They felt like old friends at the first meeting. Therefore, they took a vow of brotherhood by the river. Over the months, Yingtai spends her school days with "Brother Liang," and she develops an infatuation for him.
So her love for Liang grew to consume her, and she thought of nothing else. Soon, Yingtai's mother began to send letters to her, asking her to come home. In the fifth letter, Yingtai relented and planned to tell Brother Liang her real identity before she left school. Meanwhile, a wealthy (and unattractive) rival, Ma Wen Tsai, suspected Yingtai's real identity the whole time after their school's play, where Yingtai actually put on her dress and let down her hair to play the part of the girl who is being sacrificed to the River God, while everyone in the school thought she was an effeminate man. Well, anyway, Ma snuck up on Yingtai, who thought Ma was Liang and foolishly told him her confession that she was a girl. Ma told her then that he liked her and would like to marry her. He also told her that she should give up any dreams of marrying Liang Shanbo. Eventually Liang arrived, and after her confession, Liang and Yingtai promised one another that they would be together forever, this time as man and wife.
I can't tell you, folks, anymore. Once you fully view the film, you will see the final act in its entirety. It's on a Region 1 DVD. Let me make it clear: I love this movie, and its soundtrack's excellence greatly impressed me.