In the late Tang dynasty, a snake spirit named Blanca washes up without her memory after a failed strike against a general who harvests snakes for his own cultivation. Xuan, a cheerful snake catcher from a nearby village, helps her search for her past, and the two fall in love while hunters, her serpent sister Verta, and the truth of what she is close in around them.
Details & facts
- Chinese
- 白蛇:缘起
- Pinyin
- Baishe Yuanqi
- Released
- January 11, 2019
- Format
- 3DCG animation
- Runtime
- 99 min
- Box office
- $62 million worldwide
- Studio
- Light Chaser Animation
- Director
- Amp Wong (黄家康) and Zhao Ji (赵霁)
- Source
- Folklore / classic literature: Legend of the White Snake
White Snake was produced by Light Chaser Animation with Warner Bros., framing a prequel to the Legend of the White Snake folktale. Directed by Amp Wong and Zhao Ji, it opened in China on January 11, 2019 and earned about 449 million yuan there, roughly $62 million worldwide, the Beijing studio's strongest result to that point. GKIDS licensed the film for North America and released it theatrically in November 2019 in subtitled and English-dubbed versions, later issuing it on disc with Shout! Factory. Its success steered Light Chaser toward mythology features, leading to the sequel Green Snake in 2021, the New Gods series, and White Snake: Afloat, which completed the trilogy in 2024.
