Ketchup
Yan Baishen; Guo Chunning;
闫柏屾; 郭春宁;
Production date
2009
Object Detail
Media
digital animation (colour, sound)
Measurements
6 min 28 sec
Notes
Ketchup opens with a montage of images of Mao-era China, juxtaposed with snapshots of Yan Baishen as a child. The black and white photographs give way to a graphic drawing of the gap-toothed Yan. His quiet voice-over in Chinese says, ‘I spent my childhood in the village of Lanzhou. Tomato vines were everywhere in the village. Every harvest season, my mom made home-made ketchup.’ The ripeness and juiciness of the deep red tomatoes are emphasised by the crisp style and saturated colour of the drawings. At first, it seems this is simply a nostalgic memory of a rural childhood, with packs of children running a little wild through the village. Very soon, however, the memories become much darker. In quick succession, six-year-old Yan witnesses a public execution, and the mass killing and burial of dogs suspected of bringing rabies into the village. This is a scene of great violence, made more shocking by the noise of frantic barking and yelping, and the smacking sounds of the shovels and sticks used to beat the dogs.
The first in a proposed series of five films called ‘The Memories of Growing Up’, Ketchup is an experiment in combining 3D and stop motion animation with the characteristics of documentary film. They were strongly influenced by their mentor, Shuibo Wang, whose first film, Sunrise Over Tiananmen, nominated for an Academy Award in 1999, was similarly autobiographical; Wang was a pioneer in the experimental juxtaposition of archival photographs, artworks and animation with voice-over narration. Yan and Guo are also influenced by fond memories of the animated films of their childhood, for example those made by master ink-painting animators of the Shanghai Film Studios such as Te Wei. With new technologies in animation available, however, they were able to use 3D modelling and rendering in 3Ds Max computer graphics software to create crisply compelling contemporary scenes.
The final incident in Ketchup is the crime and punishment of an older boy known as the Haizi Wang (‘King of the Children’), who ran away from the village after his dog was beaten to death. He kills a Deputy Member of the People’s National Congress whilst attempting to steal a bicycle and is sentenced to death. Each segment of the film is punctuated by the slicing of tomatoes, their pulp oozing, the bubbling of the tomato sauce in glass vessels, and puddles of sticky redness. Yan and Guo say their starting point was the question: how could Yan have forgotten such dramatic events from his childhood? They decided that these memories were significant, not just personally, but also because they illuminate a particular time in China’s modern history.
The first in a proposed series of five films called ‘The Memories of Growing Up’, Ketchup is an experiment in combining 3D and stop motion animation with the characteristics of documentary film. They were strongly influenced by their mentor, Shuibo Wang, whose first film, Sunrise Over Tiananmen, nominated for an Academy Award in 1999, was similarly autobiographical; Wang was a pioneer in the experimental juxtaposition of archival photographs, artworks and animation with voice-over narration. Yan and Guo are also influenced by fond memories of the animated films of their childhood, for example those made by master ink-painting animators of the Shanghai Film Studios such as Te Wei. With new technologies in animation available, however, they were able to use 3D modelling and rendering in 3Ds Max computer graphics software to create crisply compelling contemporary scenes.
The final incident in Ketchup is the crime and punishment of an older boy known as the Haizi Wang (‘King of the Children’), who ran away from the village after his dog was beaten to death. He kills a Deputy Member of the People’s National Congress whilst attempting to steal a bicycle and is sentenced to death. Each segment of the film is punctuated by the slicing of tomatoes, their pulp oozing, the bubbling of the tomato sauce in glass vessels, and puddles of sticky redness. Yan and Guo say their starting point was the question: how could Yan have forgotten such dramatic events from his childhood? They decided that these memories were significant, not just personally, but also because they illuminate a particular time in China’s modern history.
Accession number
2009.063