Phantom Tales (2001)

Plot Summary

Mengbo turns to the Cultural Revolution, creating animations based on two widely-known storybooks and a technical guidebook. In recasting One Silver Dollar, an account by a soldier of the People's Liberation Army of his family's tragic history prior to 1949, Mengbo employs cinematic techniques to turn images appropriated from a static black-and-white picture book into an engaging and dynamic experience. The Bloody History of the Three Stones, a chronicle of the conditions suffered by workers in Tianjin City in the 1940s, is presented by Mengbo in a style analogous to the manual slide shows of his childhood, which, in the absence of television and movies, were a major source of entertainment. An animation of The Technology of Slides Shows examines a PLA manual for creating animated effects in slide shows. A soundtrack, of found music and sounds, accompanies each piece.

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