Big Fish & Begonia
2016 1h 41m movie Film China

Big Fish & Begonia

大鱼海棠

“Two worlds. One destiny.”

Big Fish & Begonia returned 18.7× its production cost, earning $84.6M against a $4.5M budget — one of the highest-return China films in our catalog.

Synopsis

大鱼海棠

“Two worlds. One destiny.”

Beyond the human realm, there is a magical race of beings who control the tides and the changing of the seasons. One of these beings, a young girl named Chun, seeks something more—she wants to experience the human world! At sixteen, she finally gets her chance and transforms into a dolphin in order to explore the world that has her fascinated. But she soon discovers that it's a dangerous place and nearly gets killed in a vortex. Luckily, her life is spared when a young boy sacrifices himself to save her. Moved by his kindness and courage, she uses magic to bring him back to life only to learn that this power comes at a serious price. On a new adventure, she’ll have to make her own sacrifices in order to protect his soul until it is ready to return to the human world.

The 2015–2017 China Window

191 China films released in this three-year window, ranked here by audience rating. Big Fish & Begonia sits at position #32.

  1. Nirvana in Fire
    #1

    Nirvana in Fire

    ★ 9.1 · 2015

  2. Fights Break Sphere
    #2

    Fights Break Sphere

    ★ 8.8 · 2017

  3. Burning Ice
    #3

    Burning Ice

    ★ 8.8 · 2017

  4. Blue Planet II
    #4

    Blue Planet II

    ★ 8.6 · 2017

  5. Day And Night
    #5

    Day And Night

    ★ 8.6 · 2017

  6. The Advisors Alliance
    #6

    The Advisors Alliance

    ★ 8.5 · 2017

  7. The Legend of the Condor Heroes
    #7

    The Legend of the Condor Heroes

    ★ 8.5 · 2017

  8. Who's The Murderer
    #8

    Who's The Murderer

    ★ 8.3 · 2016

Titles With Overlapping Themes

Films and series that share thematic tags with Big Fish & Begonia. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.

Other Titles From Studio Mir

The 2010s China Landscape

Catalog density by release year in the 2010s. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Big Fish & Begonia premiered. 515 total titles in this decade from China.

'1028'1140'1230'1326'1437'1544'1662'1785'1877'1986

Budget & Box Office Efficiency

$4.5M
Budget
$84.6M
Revenue
$80.0M
Net Profit
18.7×
Return Ratio

At a 1h 41m runtime, production spent $45K per minute on screen and earned $837K per minute back.

Reception Benchmarks

7.4
TMDB Rating
413
Audience Reviews
Highly Rated
Critical Tier

Ranked #206 of 946 China films indexed here (78th percentile by TMDB audience score).

Rating is +0.7 points above the China average of 6.7/10.

Among China Animation productions specifically: #36 of 97 (top 37%).

Production Details

Primary Country China
Original Language Chinese
Production Companies Studio Mir, Beijing Enlight Pictures, Horgos Coloroom Pictures
Runtime 1h 41m
Release Date July 8, 2016
IMDb tt1920885
Official Site bigfishandbegoniamovie.com

Themes & Motifs

  • self sacrifice
  • magic
  • ocean
  • supernatural
  • human animal relationship
  • romance
  • coming of age
  • adult animation
  • anime
  • non-human protagonist
  • animal transformation

External Catalogs