Epic film mythologises sticky rice

Here's a Chinese odyssey in the tradition of Journey to the West. Only in this case, it's more like Journey to the Dumpling.

Food company Wu Fang Zhai produced the ambitious, often beautiful, tongue-in-cheek three-minute film with Social Lab Beijing and Stink Beijing and director Nieto.

The film follows a group of rice grains as they go through an arduous physical and emotional journey on the way to (spoiler alert) getting stuffed into a triangular packet of bamboo leaves to be cooked and, presumably, eaten.

The film manages to communicate the brand's quality-control measures while adding some cultural heft to the product via homage to classic folklore. But importantly, it does the above without taking itself too seriously, which would surely be unwise considering modern cynical audiences. Nicely done.   

Also, Ad Nut is a fan of the art of matte painting, and there are some great examples to gawk at here.

The video at the top of the page is subtitled and dubbed in English. Here it is in the original Chinese:

CREDITS

Client: WuFangZhai
Agency: Social Lab Beijing
Creative & Account Team: Lee Pen / Bei Bei / Biao Di / Shi Xiong / Xin Wan
Production Company: Stink
Director: Nieto
DOP: Dylan Doyle
Art Director: He Yang
Executive Producer: Sally Shi
Producer: Julie Chen
1st AD: A Hong
Line Producer: Da Qian
Production Team: Yang Yang / YiXuan Tong / Bobby Wu
Casting: Fang Hui
Stylist: Ding Mu
Editor: Dean
Matte-painting artist: Tan ZhenSi
Colorist: Simon Astbury @ DDPO
Post Efx: HUE
Music Composition & Sound Effect: Smile Studio