China’s ‘Green Snake’ Debuts At #3 On Netflix’s Weekly Charts

Green Snake (a.k.a. White Snake 2), which topped the Chinese box office earlier this year, launched in the #3 spot on Netflix’s non-English film chart with 10.65 million hours viewed since its December 1 debut on the platform.

The film is Light Chaser Animation’s sequel to its 2019 hit White Snake. Both films are inspired by the Legend of the White Snake, considered one of China’s four great folk tales, which has been adapted into various operas, television series, and films. The sequel is directed by Amp Wong, one of the co-directors of White Snake.While the original was set up as a co-production with Warner Bros. Far East, the new film is a fully Chinese production.

“The 2019 film White Snake tells a love story that happened 500 years before the well-known original White Snake folklore, so it’s the prequel,” says Yu Zhou, co-founder and president of Light Chaser Animation.

“The story is about the adventure of the Green Snake, Verta, trying to find and save her sister White Snake, Blanca, who had been imprisoned by Fahai [an evil monk and the film’s antagonist],” Yu says.

Green Snake is set in the imaginary metropolis of Asuraville, “a place that is neither hell nor heaven,” says Yu. “It’s a place between living and death, inhabited by humans, demons, and monsters from different times and worlds.”

At its core, “It’s about the strong bonding and mutual devotion of two fairy sisters who had lived together for a thousand years,” Yu said.

The films take a page or three from Disney formula, adapting a popular story from folklore into action-packed animated cinema product complete with princesses, monsters and the like. The films tell the stories of two demon-snake sisters who can take human form; the sequel focuses on the Green Snake’s solo adventure, separate from the White Snake, which tempts one to say, here she goes again on her own, going down the only road she’s ever known.