Chang'an

Years after the An Lushan rebellion, with Chang'an under siege and a defeat behind him, the Tang commander Gao Shi tells his own history. What he is really telling is a friendship: a lifelong relationship with the poet Li Bai in which admiration and envy are wound together. The story runs from the dynasty's height to its unravelling. Forty-eight Tang poems are recited across the film, and Li Bai's lines are given visual form on screen. Light Chaser Animation produced it, with Xie Junwei and Zou Jing directing. At a hundred and sixty-eight minutes it is among the longest animated films ever released theatrically. It was a large box-office success in China, which says something about how alive that poetry still is.