INFORMATION

THE WILD SWAN

MOVIE
THE WILD SWAN

INFORMATION

Aired:Mar. 19 1977

STORY

One day, a king named Hildebrande loses his way in the forest while he is hunting. He comes across an old witch, who promises to show him the way out if he marries her daughter.The king and his late wife have six sons and one daughter named Elisa. Knowing that his new wife is a cold-hearted woman, he worries about his children and consults Chim, Rom and Kam, who are dwarfs in the forest and good friends his sons. The dwarfs take the children into an unknown house in the forest and give the king a ball of string which can guide him to his children in the house. So the king often goes to see his children with the help of the ball of string. But finally his new wife finds out.The queen hates her children-in-law whom she has not seen yet, and makes a gown with a magic power, waiting for the chance to come. One day, while the king is away hunting, the queen steals the ball of string and heads for the forest to find the cildren. The sons in the forest see someone coming toward them, and rush out joyfully as they think it is their father, Kink Hildebrande. On seeing them, the wicked queen throws her magic gown at them. They are turned into swans and fly away. Elisa, seeing everything from the secret house, is not discovered by the queen fortunately.Princess Elisa and the three dwarfs look for the six swans in the forest, and finally find the place where a flock of swans come together in the evening. They arrive at the place and see the six princes there again. Elisa knows that her brothers are allowed to remain in human shapes only for fifteen minutes every evening, and that they need gowns made of China asters if they want to turn back into human beings; that Elisa should never talk nor smile while she is making those gowns for her brother; if she talks or smiles, her brothers will be killed. She makes up her mind to make the gowns to save her brothers and starts her work at once, by the help of the three dwarfs, birds and animals in the forest.One day, while the three dwarfs are away from her, Prince Friedrich from a neighboring country comes into the forest to hunt. He finds Elisa and speaks to her, but no answer comes from her. Yet charmed by her, the prince takes her to his castle and cherishes her. The three dwarfs are pleased when they later know that Princess Elisa is living happily in the Prince’s castle and that she is going to marry him.Princess Elisa now in the Prince’s castle still continues to make the gowns for her brothers with the help of her friendly birds. In the meantime, however, some people begin to speak ill of Elisa as she never talks nor smiles. At last, they eve believe that she is a wicked witch. After a while, when some bad affairs happen in the Prince’s castle, people think all of them have been caused by Princess Elisa. As Elisa can’t speak out even one word, even the Prince is finally compelled to bring her to the court. The court decides that she must be a wicked witch and that she should be burned to death right away.When Princess Elisa is about to be burned, holding the finished gowns of flowers in her arms, she sees six swans flying toward her. She throws the gowns at them, and they soon turn back into human beings…her dear six brothers.Prince Friedrich now understands everything about Princess Elisa and, apologizes to her for his mistakes, and joyfully declares that he will soon marry her.

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