“Nezha”:  This domestic animation is worth “talking about”

Every Summer, there is an animation feature.  Starting from Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away”, there were also “The Secret Life of Pets 2”, “GG BOND, Incredible World”, “Mobile Suit Gundam NT”, ” Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel III. spring song 2” and a couple others.  But except for “Spirited Away”, most of them did not get hot.

But you can boldly predict, after the release of the domestic animation “Nezha”, this summer’s box office will sure be rewritten; especially when the other highly expected films finished screening, “Nezha” will definitely perform.

“Nezha” has a good production team.  The director Jiaozi(dumpling) is from the 80s.  Though he has only directed two short films “The Woman of the Boss” and ” See Through “, the latter scored high at 8.6 by 40,000 people on the Taobao platform.  And the feature’s major producer, ColorRoom Pictures has also produced animations such as ” Big Fish & Begonia “, ” Da Hu Fa ” and “Have a Nice Day”.

Re distribution, “Nezha” also took on some strategies.  On July 13th and 14th, it was only a small-scale movie.  The word-of-mouth effect was bigger than “The Return of the Monkey King”.  The film quickly launched a larger scale show nationwide from July 17 to 21.  The good reputation continued to ferment.  Many viewers believed that compared with “The Return of the Monkey King”, “White Snake”, “Nezha” has a fundamental leap from text to audio visual language.

Frankly speaking, after the release of the trailer, many people were generally not optimistic about “Nezha”.  There were a lot of bad reviews vowed to say, “Bad movie, box office? No way!”  Because “Nezha”’s style in the trailer was so ugly (and of course it is fragrance now).  Even when the film started, the bright and modern design of the light and the heavy “Sichuan essence” made people think that this has to be a bad film.  But down the road, your perception will change, and coincidentally, that is also one theme of the film.

As a classic figure in ancient Chinese legend, Nezha has multiple film and television images.  Which image does this film “Nezha” project?  Why this “Nezha” film represents a step forward in domestic animation?

The evolution of the Nezha images

Attentive audiences will find that from the birth of China’s first animated feature film “The Princess of Iron Fan” (1941), to the early 2019 “White Snake”, the development of Chinese cartoons has always fed from ancient Chinese mythology.  The “West Journey Universe” “White Snake Universe” etc., are vital creative sources of film and television drama development.  This is in fact a similar strategy as Disney’s constant remakes of their classic fairy tales: fairy tales, myths, legends, etc. have a huge audience base, whether sequel or new make, can always create concern.

Nezha is one of the most influential mythological images in China and one of the most frequently appeared images in domestic cartoons.

Regarding the artistic image of Nezha, it generally adopts those in “Journey to the West” and ” the Legend of Deification “, regardless of whether he is a supporting role, such as the animated film ” The Monkey Creates Havoc in Heaven “, the 1986 version of “Journey to the West”, or a major role, as the protagonist in ” Nezha Conquers the Dragon King “, “Nezha,the Legend”, etc., in which Nezha is mainly an adolescent, “angry” or cute, dare to act, dare to resist , but does good deeds to the common people.

As for the famous Nezha flesh-peeling plot, there are also different interpretations.  One being in the novel “Journey to the West”, “Where Nezha’s father is afraid of consequences, intends to kill his son” (whom is against the feudal patriarchy).  Another interpretation is in ” the Legend of Deification “, “(Per Nezha) I pay for my own deed, I killed AoBing, I will pay for it, and I won’t drag my parents into it (expression of filial piety, heroic spirit of self-sacrifice)”, and so on.

“A devil is born”

The animation “Nezha” is more inspired by the novel ” the Legend of Deification “, but basically for characters only.  The specific story, personality etc have been greatly revised, leaned towards the film’s ideas.

The story starts from an “Organic Pearl” bred from the universe.  The universe creator, Tianzun, remade the “Organic Pearl” into “Lingzhu” and “Evilzhu” .  “Lingzhu” evolved to be a human being, possessing great potential.  The “Evilzhu” would give birth to monsters, harming the world.  Tianzun has casted a spell, which allowed the thunder to destroy the “Evilzhu”.  On the other hand, Tianzun’s student, Tai Yi Zhen Ren, was instructed to take “Lingzhu” to be the son of Li Jing in Chentangguan.

However, accidentally, “Lingzhu” and “Evilzhu” got swapped.  The supposed “Lingzhu” hero, Nezha, became a big devil……… This created two strong suspense: “Lingzhu” reincarnation became “Evilzhu” reincarnation, then what should Nezha be?  And in three years’ time when the thunder stroke, could Nezha survive?

Although reincarnated from the “Evilzhu”, Nezha was not evil at birth.  He was also pure and innocent, but prejudice destroyed him.  There is this plot in the movie: the first time Nezha ran to the street, he wanted to play with a little girl.  But when people saw him, they shouted in horror, and several pals tied Nezha up.  They considered Nezha a monster child.

Nezha was spelled out, discriminated against, disgusted and hurt by everyone.  Even his family just wanted to isolate him.  Li Jing ordered Nezha to be locked up.  Nezha’s mother, with all her love for him, could only signed—“this may be his fate”.

Is this really fate?  Nezha was upset, unhappy, and uneasy.  But the heavy fate burden, or to be precise, the discrimination from all around, has pressured him so tight.  His choice was: alright, since all of you think that I am a monster, then I will be a monster.  He was mischievous, broke all rules, committed evildoings.  He toured around town occassionally, and created troubles all around town every time.

Therefore, in the film, Nezha appeared with the projection of a bear child and a little devil.  That’s why the film featured an ugly image with his appearance: short, heavy black eye, frustrated, and always walked with his hands in his pockets.

The script structure of “Nezha” is a typical Hollywood “three-screen structure”.  The audiences can fully predict the ending of the story: regarded as a devil at beginning, after several turning points (no details here to save the fun), at the end, he would be the live saving child prodigy.  He shouted, “Demon or god, I define it myself.” “My life is in my hand, not fate!” “If fate is unfair, I will fight it all the way.”  Incarnation of “Evilzhu”, thunder strike in 3 years, all “bullshit”!

If the movie goes this way, there is still nothing special about “Nezha”.  After all, breaking the duality of good and evil, resisting fate, my destiny in my hand etc are subjects not uncommon in film and television dramas related to Nezha.  In fact, a lot of low budget movies have done these before.

What so special about “Nezha”?

An unprecedented Nezha

I think, the Nezha in “Nezha” is unprecedented because the writer and the director have injected a tragic core into him – you think he is furious, explosive, cool, but inside, he is lonely, fragile, and helpless.  You think this is a winner’s story, no, it is a more “ordinary”, “loser” story.  The “angry” Nezha,, like any ordinary person, has a soft heart.

It is not difficult for audiences to see the shadow of Stephen Zhou’s comedy from “Nezha”.  The director, Jiao Zi, also said that he is a fan of Stephen Zhou.  It’s not just about some comedy images (like the beard guy with a girlish voice), some comedy plots (unrelated laughing topics), but an extension of the core theme of Stephen Zhou’s comedy – comedy is tragedy.  Per Mei Xuefeng’s critic of Stephen Zhou’s films, “The core of Stephen Zhou’s film, that tragic core, is, within a desolate man, lives an innocent heart of a child.  Though being neglected by the secular world, the man persists in pursuing his ideal, silently and ridiculously.”

The Nezha in “Nezha”, acquired the self-protection skill from cruel experience.  Each one of us does develop such kind of skill: pretending not to care, pretending to be free and easy, pretending to be indifferent, pretending not to cooperate, pretending to be a bad person……..In the movie, facing death, Nezha said to the family, today is my birthday party, no one is allowed to cry.  This is a moment of tears.  But this moment also reflects to some extent that the self-protecting skill is still habitually working inside Nezha.:  if I am gone, you won’t cry? So I might as well take high ground first, to “order” everyone not to do so.

“Nezha”’s “my life in my hands” will move many people.  But if you look deeper, it hides another story: how a person abandoned by the world & eager to win recognition, carefully guards his innocence, and tries to be pleasing and lives humbly in the world full of prejudice.  This is something that hit your heart.

This movie is not a simple “sinister”.  Behind the laughs and gags lies a real world’s cruelty and pain.

Although “Nezha” continues the Nezha’s legend, the film is rich in creativities.  Not only does it reshape the relationship between Li Jing, AoBing, but also enriches images of Li Jing, AnBing, Shen Gongbao so they are rich, solid and touching than ever before.  AoBing and Shen Gongbao are the other side of Nezha.  But they make different choices when facing cruelty.   In the movie, AoBing and Li Jing should be able to pick up quite a number of fans.  Many details in “Nezha”, like the scorpion, the Shanhe community map, the three-dimensional pinball, action designs and visual presentation, can let the audience fully feel their imagination high and fly.

Domestic animations are either too “childish” or too “adults” like, lack of equilibrium.  With this background, “Nezha” has taken a small step forward.  It tells a story that is not difficult to understand, but a story with depth.

“People’s prejudice is like a giant mountain, you cannot move it no matter how hard you try”. People have e a lot of prejudice about domestic animation.  “Nezha” will “move” this mountain.  It is worth our support at the box office.

Source： Pengpai News

Editor：Maggie