Bai Niao Gu

I stumbled across this film accidentally and I am SO glad I did.

I honestly have nothing but good things to say about this.

Im at a loss for words to describe how amazing the art was, and the sound was godly.

I liked the characters and how you were given little to no context about them whatsoever so you had to make your own judgement and decisions on what they were doing and why.

I have yet to see a film with such amazing and consistent art, and if I have it is completely escaping my memory.

Its really too bad that so ... little people have seen this short film, but honestly, Im not sure if it would be received with as high of praise as I give it.

All in all amazing film!

This is a sumptuous little film, albeit a bit vague on the story. Magic using characters and creatures meet in a verdant little alcove—but beyond that broad description, I'd have trouble pinning down any other details about the story. Birds, leaves, magic, phantoms, water, wood. The film is maybe more of a poem than anything else.

However, because it is short (15 minutes) I think it's worth watching for the backgrounds alone. Gorgeous stuff. Lush and living, I felt like I could reach out and touch the damp leaves and water-logged wooden huts. The simplified style of the characters' design played well against the watercolor-esque ... world they travelled through.

Elegant, enigmatic, and enchanting.

Rating: 7/10

—————
It's good. Just not for very conventional reasons. Having read through other people's thoughts and feelings on this short, it has become apparent to me that there is obvious room for interpretation of the true intentions of the writers behind the scenes.

I wasn't the most focused on this short in all honesty, whilst some of it has to do with my own faults in how I behave, from what I did gather, I do believe that the execution did not live up to a great standard. It's good, but not good enough. Anyway, this whole meandering through the woods and following the birds' ... stuff seems to be plastered with nothing meaningful behind them other than beautiful images. I suppose beautiful things look nice, but some meaning attached to them would have made for a more pleasant experience. It could just be that I very much had the entire meaning of this short fly well over my head but I doubt it a little on the notion there was no apparent connection between half the small things that go on here aside from the very obvious things like the interactions and the birds changing colours. Something like that.

Anyway, the art here is really something else, and if nothing else about this is top tier, then I would say that you should just go have a look at this for the art. Fluid, detailed, good colour compliments and gradients and whatever is needed to make an animation good, because it's all good at the end of the day here. One may even go as far as to see what else Wolf Smoke Studio has to offer after watching this. I suppose shorts like this have the time and efforts that allow them to be so properly produced, but that shouldn't be used to undermine the efforts. It's all gorgeous.

Maybe I need to brush up on my media comprehension skills. I was a little mixed on this so I can't say this is entirely worth the watch, but who doesn't like good-looking images? Give it a go and see what conclusion you run into.