I liked the puppet-animated scenes (very well-done), but thought that the live-action scenes dragged and the story skipped over a number of key points, or just used intertitles to tell them (seemingly because it would've been hard to animate them), which made the film way more confusing than it should have been. It kind of feels like it wasn't finished.

Some things probably make more sense for Estonians who are already familiar with the story, but I cannot find a translation of it anywhere.

And what's with the Estonian-only dialogue but English-only text? It seems like only 50% of Estonians currently speak English, and probably less back when this was made...

For East Asians, who follow the lunar calendar (太陰曆), it is only December of the old year. The first day of the new year 2024 is February 10. However, the number 2024 is according to the new calendar, because if we follow the old calendar, it will now be more than 30 thousand years since Mesopotamia began to have a state. In fact, Asian people were very undeveloped in mathematics, so astronomical knowledge was completely learned from Persia but through India.

As we all know, the Middle East and Greater India are tropical areas, winter temperatures are even similar to summer, so the image of the moon is associated with night when the weather is cool. Lunar night is considered the most beautiful moment (read One Thousand and One Nights), while the sun is often associated with evil (this is also understandable). Indian legends often tell and retell events related to the war of the moon against the sun, but through everyday images. For example : The peacock princess was kidnapped by an evil eagle and was saved by the prince, one bright moonlit night - suddenly a demon came to swallow the moon (well, it is also possible that Hohol's The Night Before Christmas originated from this story)... Some ancient Chinese texts even tell of a king who shot 9/10 suns with his bow & arrow and then married a beauty ; but because of his one mistake, she was locked in a palace where was called as the moon. In the epic of an ethnic minority in the Central Highlands of my country, there is a tribal hero who wanders around the world hoping to capture the sun goddess as his wife. That is the reason that in modern slang, many men flatter their wife by calling as "my sun goddess" (nữ thần mặt trời của tôi).

The Vietnamese New Year festival is called as "Tết Nguyên Đán" (元旦節, "festival of the first day"). If we follow traditional conventions, we only have three days off to clean the house for the New Year and welcome guests. However, that is because in ancient times life was less busy and work did not force people to move much, so that was enough. After the Vietnam War ended, life was moving faster and faster with industrialization, so three days was not enough for persons from far away to reunite with their families, so initially the government allowed people to take a week off. However, as the 1990s and 2000s progressed, more and more persons joined the industrialization mechanism, even having to move by train and plane continuously, so the parliament proposed two weeks, plus including holidays (that is, if a New Year's Day coincides with a public holiday, the holiday will overlap with the following days). I haven't mentioned one problem, at a time when Covid is very serious, the New Year holiday schedule for children and civil servants is up to two months, making many persons feel very uncomfortable.

In the past, the New Year festival was an opportunity for families to reunite, worship ancestors, visit the graves of the deceased and visit other families to give blessings. However, now Vietnamese people are increasingly bored with it. In Southern Vietnam, where there is a strong influence of Catholic culture, the New Year festival exists almost exclusively in families of Chinese or Northern Vietnamese origin. In Northern Vietnam, in recent years, the Southern trend has also been spreading. Why so ? The problem is, industrial society has "invaded" respectful lifestyles. If I come to bless you, of course I will have to give your children [and your parents] a red envelope (hồng bao). Red is inherently the color of luck, but inside the envelope there must be money. When I was very young, the economy was still poor, so "celebrating the new age" (mừng tuổi) like that was only an estimate, but today it is a terrible burden. Such blessings have become a form of bribery, influence and even corruption. Because there have been officials prosecuted for receiving New Year's gifts worth millions of dollars. That's why the trend of "escape from the New Year festival" (trốn tết) is increasingly flourishing. Many families have chosen to travel during the first days of the year to avoid that terrible money cycle.

Every year-end, I see my parents preparing a new stack of money. It's simple because, the more relationships you have (relatives, friends, partners), the more money you have to spend ; furthermore, celebrating a new age with old money is highly undesirable. Therefore, every fall, banks issue new money for people to exchange old money. But Lunar New Year is just one of many "festivals" in a year, if you know about the gold-plated moon cakes every Mid-Autumn Festival. There is even another form of bribery, which is stuffing gold rings into festival cakes. The quality of the cake is very bad, but the filling is not bad at all, right ? All in all, that's why I love festivals from the West so much : Gentle, cozy and very fun.

I tried posting this film on several sites. Indeed, it has a very good effect, so unexpectedly good. Not only because the song is so famous, but the story is also very pure.

>>1

The 1986 film adaptation will probably be more satisfying. What's interesting is that it was made of sand. I'm trying to translate now, but it will probably take a long time.

I think this is quite decent, though it's way less faithful (both outwardly and in spirit) to the original Russian folk tale than the excellent 2013 "Mountain of Gems" version. Though it ultimately has roughly the same moral, it follows the trend that was prevalent in those years of changing children's folk tales to not have bad endings (you also saw it in the US, such as with Ray Harryhausen's stop motion fairy tale adaptations). Whereas the 2013 version psychologically softens the "bad" ending by changing the frame to that of the fox as a good mother telling the cautionary story to her children - but even so, the dough-ball DOES get eaten.

This version is interesting, though, in that the dough-ball is rather more of a "difficult character" who invents his own "drama", while none of the forest animals even care much about him, except for the fox (which is something that this version shares with the otherwise very unorthodox 2006 version).

Recently I had the opportunity to talk with a brother from the Trappiste order, who honor the Mother Mary as their patron saint, so everyone takes the last name Marie. I learned from experience that the liturgists at the monastery themselves do not fully understand the issues of their own beliefs. Of course, we all say to each other that humans do not live by bread, but that does not mean we can completely live without eating.

When I was a child, there was a story by a Soviet writer that was reprinted many times in reference books of Vietnamese students. He said that, on a snowy day, an old beggar asked a boy for alms. But the boy said he had nothing, so the beggar told the boy that he had just given the old man a lot. I believe that very few persons understand this proposition, because they are blinded by the cycle of life, which is like in some of Christ's parables.

At 9:45, we hear the same music as the one used in Ivan Maximov's first film, FRU-89. From Left To Right, which also came out in 1989. I wonder which was first?

>>1
>A film, which was made very simply, but touched me very much.
I feel that way about a lot of Belarusfilm productions of the mid-1990s (though not all of them are made as simply). It seems to have been a very... peaceful, introspective period in their animated cinema.
Others I like: Vladimir Petkevich's "There Lived a Tree (1996), Yelena Petkevich's "Forest Tales" (1997), Aleksandr Vereshchagin's "Happy Birthday (1996, unfortunately not on this site yet because I couldn't find it on Youtube, Vimeo or Dailymotion).

Also, I can't help but wonder if this film inspired Mihail Aldashin's better-known "The Nativity" (1996).

While making the English subtitles, I tried really hard to find a translation for the poem, but ultimately had to do it myself. Likewise for the second story, though that one was easier (but made a little harder because the text mostly isn't the same as its source material).

Not that many of Sasha Chorny's poems have been translated to English; a few others can be found here.

A very feminist film? It was all Adam's fault, and the Snake is actually the good guy. ;)
Totally opposite in temperament to the film submitted by Cynir right before this, Yuletide Stories (also a "religious film directed by a woman", for what it's worth, though one of them loves the faith while the other loves to mock it), which is why I'm going to wait a little 'til the holidays are over to correct the mistake with the language (so it won't show on the front page right next to the other one yet... I don't normally bother, but the contrast just seems a bit too great for this time of year).

As for the film, I probably find such simplistic drawing styles a bit lazy these days, and the basic story to be done a little too often.

I wonder if this is related to the figure of Lilith? (Robert Saakyants' first directorial work dealt with that subject - an interesting if difficult film, though again totally different in temperament to this one)

Adam looking at the underside of the world also reminded me of Mihail Titov's brilliant Yerik (1989), and the very end of Mihail Aldashin's "The Other Side" (1993).

As for films or stories about Baba-Yaga, I've almost tried not to miss them since I was a kid. I even learned that the acting prowess of male star Georgiy Millyar became the model for any Baba-Yaga character appearing on the screen after the 1960s.

In this film, Mariya represents spring, while Baba-Yaga and sometimes Kikimora represents autumn or winter. Danila must go into the magic lake to develop intellectually, personally and strengthen his faith. Life has many pitfalls, but in the end, faith, energy and love will overcome them all.