With fast-paced, mind-blowing plots and visual spectacles, the new animated feature drawn from one of China's most iconic while traditional mythological legends provides a new representation of how modern independent women define their destiny. 

As the most anticipated animated movie this summer, "White Snake 2: The Tribulation of Green Snake", sequel to the 2019 animated hit "White Snake" was released nationwide on July 23 and has grossed 194 million yuan ($29.93 million) over the weekend, according to the box office tracker Beacon. It tells the story inspired by China's household folk legend of the White Snake, but this time, it focuses on the close mate: the green snake spirit.

"The audience loved the first installment, and we have been thinking about doing a sequel with innovative ideas," director Amp Wong told China.org.cn in an exclusive interview. He co-directed the first one with director Zhao Ji, but this time he is on his own.

In his vision, the white snake spirit represents traditional Chinese woman, but the green snake is more straightforward and embodies perseverance and independence. "Building a story around her, I felt we can better communicate with today's audience about how to define the modern woman."

The opening scene is an action-studded spectacle, which challenged the crew the most to create, where the two snake spirits are summoning a flood in order to face off a powerful Buddhist monk Fa Hai who is trying to hunt them down. 

When they fail, with the white snake being imprisoned in Leifeng Pagoda, the green snake falls into a weird yet brutal fantastic world named Asuraville. 

From here, she begins a new adventure to survive and escape from Asuraville, where modern and ancient architecture coexist in timeless space, while fighting off villains, monsters and her own obsession to find her lost sister-like companion, the white snake. 

Besides the epic opening scene, another amazing ink wash paint-style duel scene also took the production team a lot of time to complete, Amp Wong explaining: "This is really rare in the world."

The film, released in multiple formats including IMAX, held a premiere in Beijing on July 20, applauded by the critics and audience alike. The premiere gathered the main creators and Hong Kong actress Angie Chiu, who is household name for the title character in the hit TV series "The Legend of White Snake" (1992).

"Today I'm so proud to see such a high-level animated film, and China is advancing in this field," Chiu commented. Many of the creators are fans of hers, with Wong admitting he was also inspired by the TV series and the actress, even borrowing a nostalgic song from the series for the new animation.

The COVID-19 pandemic last year surely impacted the production, the director admitted; however, they developed a telecommuting system to continue their work. When some colleagues were trapped in their hometowns due to COVID-19, they delivered special computers to them to work at home. At the same time, Wong said, being able to work also reduced colleagues' attention to painful things during the pandemic.

With strong ticket sales and rave reviews, "White Snake 2" could be a new peak for Light Chaser Animation. In 2019, "White Snake" became a big success grossing 468 million yuan, and great example for China-US co-production as Warner Bros. Pictures invested in it. This time, however, Light Chaser Animation formed a new partnership with domestic giants Alibaba Pictures, Maoyan and Bilibili.

The director said without Warner Bros. backing, he was still expecting to push for overseas release and he is excited at the prospect to present the film to the world that is groundbreaking yet with lots of Chinese traditional cultural elements.

"Many foreigners were in awe at the first one about how China can do such an animated film, I felt really proud then. I believed they will be amazed by my new one, too. We must let foreigners see our films and culture. And through our animation and films, they will know what a nation we are."

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