Zhang Bo is a concept art director, storyboard supervisor, art director, and animation director based in Beijing. He earned his MA in Animation at Beijing Film Academy. Zhang Bo’s diverse portfolio spans from live action films to animation and video games. He is the concept art director and storyboard supervisor for “The Wandering Earth“. All of his capacities and work seem to come together in “Ruthless Blade“.
Ruthless Blade is screening at Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia
Starting with a quote by Siegried Sassoon, the impressive animation of the film becomes quite apparent from the get go, as an ominous voice is narrating, and a lone fighter with a sword enters a building, evidently to have a fight. It turns out that the lone warrior is a humanoid cat who has come to save his comrades, but has to face scores of enemies, headed by Ruthless Blade, Master of Six Lanterns. Things do not go well for him though, and soon finds himself injured and imprisoned, bound by chains, just like the comrades he came to save. The battle eventually continues, but the ending changes the what is happening completely.
Apart from the twist in the ending, which does give a playful note to the narrative, the whole film is actually focused on action, in wuxia style. Both the action and the artform here, though, are truly astonishing. The frantic movement, the violence and the brutality, the sharp cuts by editors Deng Boren and Zoe Zhou all result in a true visual extravaganza, that makes it quite difficult to look away from the screen even for a moment. The combination of VFX, 3D and 2D animation looks exquisite, and in combination with the ink-like drawing add even more to the quality here.
The fact that animation of this level is combined with drawing of such detail is truly outstanding to watch, with both the characters and the background being equally great. Lastly, that in the last part, the artform changes while retaining the same level, moving more towards anime aesthetics, cements the quality and variety of the work in the 12-minute short.
Not much more to say, in terms of artform, “Ruthless Blade” is a true masterpiece, a film that manages to combine the wuxia aesthetics of “The Blade” with Masaaki Yuasa’s style in the best fashion. Zhang Bo and his crew definitely a group of talents that will make impact in the future.
