Posted in: Movies, Review | Tagged: animation, chinese folklore, chinese movies, CMC Pictures, Feature Film, Investiture of the Gods, Ne Zha, Ne Zha 2, Yang Yu

Ne Zha 2: Goes from Slapstick Gags to Tearjerker and Earns its Raves

Ne Zha 2 is a billion-dollar hit for a reason: its rebellious kid hero goes from slapstick comedy to heartrending tear-jerker for all kids

Ne Zha 2 opens in the US with a certain amount of hype – it's the first movie to make $1 billion at the box office, the first animated movie to make $1 billion this year, and the first movie to ever make a billion dollars only in its original country of release. Some people think that box office figures are inflated and are propaganda, but the actual numbers make sense. It opened on Chinese New Year, the biggest movie season of the year in China, because it's an 8-day public holiday where families are home together, so entire families go to the movies when they've had their celebratory meals and the kids are bored. Ne Zha 2 is a movie that directly appeals to kids, so becoming a box office hit is a no-brainer. At the moment, it's at US$1.67 billion and has opened in 700 screens in the US, which is just half the number of screens that Captain America: Brave New World is on, and of course, it's not going to make as much as the latter film here. Having said that, nothing hypes a movie more than saying it already made a billion dollars, so is it any good?

Yes, it is.

So What's it About?

By the way, this movie has a plot, you know. Ne Zha 2 is a direct sequel to 2019's Ne Zha (which was also a huge hit and a box office milestone for animation films in China at the time, just not a US billion-dollar hit yet), which was an origin story about the birth of chaotic demigod Ne Zha and his friendship with the dragon prince Aobing. Ne Zha was the song of a general who was supposed to embody a heavenly pearl gem, but the gem was split into two, and he was born bearing the chaotic side, which made him a chaotic, unruly kid. Imagine Dennis the Menace with superpowers. Hated and misunderstood by the local townsfolk, the lonely kid befriends the refined prince Aobing, who was the only being with powers who could keep up with him, unaware they're supposed to be mortal enemies – and they're bearers of the two halves of the heavenly pearl. Ne Zha is a lonely little boy who wants to be loved, and he is a hero's journey as he struggles to be accepted and defies destiny to forge his own while saving the world. You can watch it free and legally on YouTube, including with an official dub and dialogue that's as funny as the original Mandarin.

Ne Zha 2 is about the next stage in the godboy's journey as he tries to save Aobing, but the two of them are forced to share one body after a hitch. After a series of slapstick hijinks in their attempts to play hero, things get real when a war with the gods and the sea dragons erupts and threatens the world, including everyone they care about.

Ne Zha 2 is a Better Marvel Movie Than Captain America: Brave New World

While Marvel fans gripe and complain about Captain America: Brave New World, they've probably completely missed that Ne Zha 2 is a better Marvel movie than nearly every MCU movie of the last four years. It starts out funny, full of silly slapstick, poop, and fart jokes, and people getting whacked on the head and slapped around until shit gets real; then, the hero loses someone he loves and has to face his destiny. Ne Zha's mother sacrificing her life to save him is an allusion to director Yang Yu's mother supporting him when he was unemployed and learning to become an animator. Yes, kids, moms get fridged a lot in Chinese stories. Every Asian has guilt about their moms and feels they can never repay their love and sacrifice, which is quite different from Hollywood stories where moms are taken for granted or ignored altogether in favour of daddy issues where the hero is always hung up on their dads not loving them enough.

The two Ne Zha animated movies may look like a superior Dreamworks production with some teeth in its darker emotional moments, but it's the result of its creators having grown up on anime, the Dragon Ball series, video games, and MCU movies. You don't need to know that Ne Zha is a centuries-old old Chinese deity who's the patron god of children to follow the story, which has been rebooted and reconfigured the same way Marvel and DC keep changing their stories with added angst and wildly choreographed action set pieces. The best Marvel and MCU stories are about heroic sacrifice, and by the end, Ne Zha sacrifices himself and ends up not only saving everyone but becomes a god in a beefed-up telling of a centuries-old Chinese saga. You don't have to know any Chinese history or mythology to enjoy this movie. After all, Kung Fu Panda, a Hollywood series set in a pseudo-China, was a hit without the audience knowing anything about China. The difference here is the authenticity of the Chinese perspective and approach to the story. Ne Zha 2 could be seen as a proud representation of how good Chinese animation and movies can get now, and it's the story and characters that take it to the finish line of becoming a billion-dollar franchise.

FYI – They're Totally Setting Up a Rebooted Chinese Gods Cinematic Universe

Don't be surprised if a whole new Chinese Gods Cinematic Universe is being set up in these movies – 2020's slightly more adult, but still, PG-13 Jiang Ziya was the second movie from this studio – and Ne zha will likely team up with Sun Wukong the Monkey King in a future film. There's a huge easter egg in the climactic fight teasing that future story that every Chinese people would have recognised. Their team-up story is already in Chinese Literature and due for a cinematic reboot. This is not even a spoiler since the story will be a rebooted version that nobody can predict right now.

Tales of gods, whether it's Mount Olympus, Ragnarok, Götterdämmerung or Chinese myths like Investiture of the Gods (whose modern meaning might be "The Naming of the New Gods"), are always reflections, allegories, and commentary about their times. There is no Communist propaganda message in this movie. If anything, it's about individualism and choosing one's destiny, which Ne Zha does at the end. Individualism has always been a strong impulse in Chinese culture long before and despite Communism. Ne Zha fights against the hypocrisy and corruption of the gods and invaders. Hell, he fights against those in power who want to suppress and force him to stay in his lane. It could be read as an attack on the corporate power structures threatening to crush everyone now. How much more political and universal can the lesson in kid's animation get? Art might not change the world, but it always reflects it. Ne Zha 2 is full of commentary about class conflict, the corporate elite vs. the underclass, and its hero's refusal to be a cog in the system and their weapon. That might make this one of the most important movies of the year, and it's fitting that the message is delivered by the patron god of children.

Ne Zha 2

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Review by Adi Tantimedh

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9/10

A direct sequel to the first movie, this one goes bigger and more epic featuring the mischievous demigod and the next chapter on his hero's journey is a kid's animated cartoon that's like a high quality Dreamworks film with more teeth, starting out with slapstick comedy, poop and fart jokes to appeal to kids before things get real and it becomes an epic with heartbreaking loss and sacrifice that's a real tearjerker that explains why it became a billion-dollar franchise in China. But you don't need to know anything about Chinese culture or mythology to enjoy it.

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