The Guardian Brothers Review

The Guardian Brothers is a Weinstein release of the 2016 Chinese animated film Little Door Gods produced by Light Chaser Animation and directed by Gary Wang. In this post, I will dissect the differences between the original and the Weinstein version and I will give my review.

Original plot

As humans stop worshipping gods, the spirit world experiences an unemployment crisis. Some of the gods are forced to undergo job retraining while others are forced to retire entirely. Yu Lei, a “door god” or “door guardian”, is determined to save his job. His crazy plan is to unleash a Nian, a beast capable of wrecking havoc in the human world, in order to make the humans need the gods again. To unleash the Nian, he must break three seals located in the human world.

Meanwhile, in the human world, a woman named Luli moves back to her hometown to take over her mother’s soup shop. Soon, Luli’s mother passes away, leaving Luli alone with the restaurant and a young daughter named Rain. To make things more complicated, a new restaurant opens next door to Luli’s shop and Luli soon struggles to attract customers. The owner of the new restaurant plots to take over Luli’s restaurant and even at one point propositions marriage to her.

The two plots collapse because Luli’s restaurant is one of the last few buildings with a door god poster on its door. This poster allows Yu Lei to cross over to the human world where he briefly meets Rain before moving on to go destroy the three seals and free the Nian. Following Yu Lei is his brother, Shen Tu, the other door god. Shen Tu befriends Rain and Yuli (the three of them even go a Halloween dance party) and together they stop the Nian catastrophe and save the soup shop.

Changes made by Weinstein

• They trimmed 20 minutes off the movie. They noticeably removed the (drunken) Halloween dance party, but they left a line of dialogue where a side character tells Shen Tu “I remember you from the Halloween dance party”, which doesn’t make sense anymore!
• They added a voice-over narration and a lot of extra dialogue. Scenes that were silent in the original suddenly have random chit chat. It looks a bit weird because they make the characters talk when their mouths are off-screen or when they are simply smiling.
• They changed the core conflict slightly. Instead of being an unemployment crisis and Yu Lei seeking to create work for the gods, what happens is that the mayor forbids the gods from travelling to the human world in an effort to keep the two worlds separate and Yu Lei unleashes the Nian hoping it will force gods and humans to unite once again.
• They removed romantic allusions. There’s a Flower Spirit named Bloom who seems to be Yu Lei’s girlfriend in the original version, but in Weinstein’s version, she no longer mentions dating him. Also, the rival restaurant owner no longer suggests marrying Luli. It’s just business.
• They replaced some instrumental score and original Chinese songs with American music.
• They added fart jokes. I don’t know why, but they did!

Review

Light Chaser Animation shows a lot of talent in this debut feature. The animation is high-quality with lots of gorgeous scenery both in the spirit world and in the human world. The premise about the god’s job crisis fun and creative. It seems like a lot of thought went into the world-building, character design and sound design. Sadly, the Weinstein version lacks the original Chinese songs, overcrowds the dialogue and loses the core message about embracing change.

Lightchaser has talked about wanting to be a Chinese Pixar, and I think Pixar’s influence can be felt in this film. Pixar films usually ask the question “what if ___ had feelings?”. In this case, the question is “what if door gods had feelings?”. Much like in a Pixar film, the answer involves a buddy duo and a fantasy world with a detailed functioning logic. I actually loved the way the spirit world was linked to the human world through the paper lanterns and the door god posters.

Animation-wise, the characters have a pleasantly cuddly design and the action scenes are rendered with impressive fluidity and style. When Bloom bends flower petals against a backdrop of white snow, the scene is simply astonishing. There’s an equally beautiful scene where Yu Lei levitates water and a quieter one where Luli and Rain float their paper lantern. The movie uses diverse techniques to convey exposition, such as the puppet show opening and the 2D-animated fresco.

Characterization-wise, I loved the mother-daughter duo. There’s a great moment where Luli is inspired to try new ingredients after a couple of magic petals accidentally transform her soup. There are no more magic petals, but she comes up with new recipes and manages to delight her costumers without magic. It shows the value of hard work and innovation. Right about that time, Rain is seen coming out of her shell and befriending the kids who previously bullied her.

The characterization falters when it comes to Yu Lei. Rain immediately takes a liking to him, but there’s no good reason for that to happen. She has more reasons to like Shen Tu, who is actually nice and helps her family out, but she still prefers Yu Lei because I guess he looks like the hero? It seems like a missed opportunity to teach Yu Lei a lesson. He should have learned that arrogance and violence don’t get you as popular as being nice and helpful like Shen Tu.

In the end, I think the only severe flaw of the film is the disjointed pacing. There’s a lot of ground to cover – explaining the rules of the spirit world, the door gods’ relationship with the humans, the economic crisis of the spirit world, Yu Lei’s villain-hero morals – yet a lot of time is spent on unnecessary characters, like the spirit antagonist who has a flock of cherubic minions or the human antagonist who wants to annex Luli’s restaurant. It’s a lot of antagonists.

Verdict

The movie has interesting themes and ambitious visuals, but the script is kind of the weakest point. All in all, I think the original version is the best version, even if it drags in the middle and contains an absurd Halloween dance party and a bizarre business-marriage proposal.

Rating:

Fun facts

• Door gods (门神) are divine guardians of doors and gates in Chinese folklore. They protect against the entry of evil influences and encourage the entry of positive ones. They are represented in paintings or prints that can be pasted on doors.
• Shen Tu (神荼) and Yu Lei (郁垒) are the names of the two most ancient door gods.
• A Nian (年兽) is a beast said to have the body of a bull and the head of a lion. It lives under the sea or in the mountains. Every year at the beginning of the Chinese New Year, it comes out of hiding to eat crops and sometimes villagers, especially children.

• List of English songs:
  • Glow by Deron Johnson and Andrea Remanda
  • Soul by Charming Liars
  • Celebration by Cool & the Gang
  • Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas
• Links to original Chinese songs:
  • Door
  • Open the Door
  • Endlessly