Film Name: 聪明的一休之反斗公主 / Naughty Princess and Ikkyu San
Before watching this film, I made a mistake: I approached it with expectations shaped by the TV anime “Naughty Princess and Ikkyu San.” In hindsight, this error was quite significant. Viewed through that lens, the film feels like a forced grafting of Chinese elements onto Ikkyu’s story—a tedious rehash where Princess Yulan’s thoughts must be accompanied by a signature gesture, a routine performance where every character appears but none truly shines.
From a nostalgic standpoint, the film does retain many elements from the original Ikkyu series, but they’re mostly superficial. Take the witty Q&A segments or Ikkyu’s classic thinking pose—these are present. Yet any depth, even the slightest nuance, seems to have been “forgotten.” For instance, the Kikyo Inn owner was originally a symbolically greedy character, but here he’s reduced to a generic shopkeeper wailing over lost prayer beads. Similarly, the General isn’t portrayed as a stern judge but rather as a lovable character with childish temperament who enjoys sparring with Ikkyu. In the film, he loses much of this charm.
This made me question the film’s creative intent. Was it to revive the “Naughty Princess and Ikkyu San” children’s brand in China for commercial gain? To leverage nostalgia among adults to drive box office sales? Thus it felt the need to awkwardly graft in a Chinese element—Princess Yulan—complete with exaggerated “eyebrow-raising” thought animations and an inexplicable Chinese-style building in Anguosi Temple. The result? These seemingly deliberate design choices come across as self-serving, and audiences simply aren’t buying it.
Of course, the film isn’t entirely without merit. For instance, the ultimate riddle posed in the film—”What is both hot and cold, hard and soft?”—effectively elevates the thematic resonance when its answer is revealed. Similarly, the character of the thief “Tiger-Striped Monk” is quite well-conceived. The fusion of cat and thief, combined with detective-style elements, adds significant color to the film. Unfortunately, the film fails to devote more detailed attention to depicting the inner workings of the Tiger-Striped Monk. Crucially, the fact that he gives away stolen goods to the poor is an important plot point. Why does the film merely state this fact without visually portraying it?
Princess Magnolia’s exaggerated facial expressions drag down the film’s overall quality. At its core, the film’s blatant and clumsy grafting of Chinese and Japanese elements creates a jarring disconnect from the outset. Combined with the frequent visual jarring from the exaggerated expressions and architectural product placements, the nostalgic tribute to childhood becomes a commercialized tribute to childhood.
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