Chun belongs to a hidden race of Others who tend the laws of nature beneath the sea and visit the human world as red dolphins when they come of age. After a human boy drowns saving her, she bargains away half her lifespan to revive his soul as a tiny fish she names Kun, hiding him as he grows while her devoted friend Qiu pays his own price and her world buckles under the broken taboo.
Details & facts
- Chinese
- 大鱼海棠
- Pinyin
- Dayu Haitang
- Also known as
- Big Fish & Begonia
- Released
- July 8, 2016
- Format
- 2D animation
- Runtime
- 105 min
- Box office
- $86 million worldwide
- Studio
- B&T Studio, Studio Mir
- Director
- Liang Xuan (梁旋) and Zhang Chun (张春)
- Source
- Original work
Directors Liang Xuan and Zhang Chun expanded Big Fish & Begonia from a 2004 Flash short, and the project became known for its 12-year road to theaters, which included a crowdfunding campaign before Enlight Media investment carried it to a July 8, 2016 release. B&T Studio made the hand-drawn film with animation support from the Korean studio Studio Mir, drawing imagery from Zhuangzi, the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and Fujian tulou architecture. It grossed about 565 million yuan in China, around $86 million worldwide, an unusually strong result for a domestic 2D feature. Shout! Studios and Funimation released an English-dubbed version in North America in April 2018.
