The Storm(大雨)

Antoine Corbani

I was rather disappointed by this alleged standout at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, directed by Chinese filmmaker Busifan. The film was noted for its slick and refreshing alternation between ink wash painting techniques and traditional hand-drawn animation throughout its runtime. While I did appreciate and acknowledge the volition to use such an interesting combination of styles, the first half of the film felt rather static and devoid of visual charm, and the film’s “look” only really starts to stand out towards the last 20 minutes. Additionally, the narrative, from start to finish, was rather difficult to follow, hindered even more so by poor subtitling and a lack of much-needed exposition. As a result, enjoying the experience was quite a challenge. The character design, however, is excellent, and was immediately reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s plethora of fantastic childlike imaginations from the likes of “Spirited Away” and “My Neighbor Totoro”. We follow two protagonists, Mantou, a young boy, and his adoptive father Daguzi as they explore a massive ship that has washed up on the shores of a nearby river which is said to contain priceless treasure. However, the arrival of a brutal storm marks the beginning of a mythical prophecy’s fulfillment and a life-changing journey for the both of them. It is clear that “The Storm” is a very personal work to Busifan, which is perhaps why its story might seem so difficult to definitively grasp for me. Furthermore, these narrative weaknesses take away from the impact of the film’s deeply emotional ending, which I found to be a great shame. Ultimately, there is an immense amount of potential in Busifan’s work, I just wished his storytelling and writing were more refined in order to properly accompany his artistic vision.