Nezha Zhi Mo Tong Jiang Shi

As of the time of this review the movie has already reached 4.7 billion in box office, making it the second most popular film in Chinese history just after Wolf Warrior 2. Given all the problems that have plagued the animation industry in Mainland China, this is an unprecedented milestone that will hopefully bring us many more quality animations for all audiences.

Being a devout supporter of Chinese animation, I took the first opportunity I got to watch this film, if only to experience renewed pride for my home country. As someone who grew up with Chinese legends and folk tales, this film brought an overwhelming ... surge of nostalgia. I have to acknowledge my potentially biased standpoint on the quality of this film, as my excitement over its mere existence is enough for me to give it 10s all around. However, having watched it twice now (once emotionally and once more analytically), I believe I am capable of enough rational thought to give a fairly balanced review.

Story (9/10) - The film tells the tale of Nezha, a child originally destined for greatness who becomes victim to a scheme that drastically alters his fate. Having inherited a monstrous power, Nezha becomes ostracized by the people in his home community. In an attempt to save Nezha from his demonic nature, his parents and master/teacher train him to do good deeds through fighting monsters. Unfortunately, a series of misunderstandings make their plans unsuccessful, and even Nezha’s only friend is forced to turn against him. Nezha also learns that he is destined to die via a calamity spell on this third birthday, a secret that had been purposefully kept secret from him so he could live a fulfilling life.

I enjoyed the story not because of its plot but because of the powerful messages that it conveyed. Despite all of the problems that he faces, Nezha chooses to fight - against fate, against prejudice, and against anything that stands in his way. He teaches the audience that anything is possible, and that regardless of what anyone else says, one’s own actions are the ones that count.

Art (8/10) - I was initially very put-off by Nezha’s design, as it was so contrary to all of the other depictions of him, traditional or modern (possibly with the exception of Shi Wan Ge Leng Xiao Hua). But about 30 minutes into the film this quirky unconventional design became my favorite, as I fell in love with his expressive face and adorable mannerisms.

The character of Nezha was super well animated, and definitely a highlight to the art. While there are a few characters that I didn’t like much, the overall art style was surprisingly pleasant. In terms of the special effects and background art, I feel that they may have been excessive at times, especially with the water animations. However, I am of the opinion that having too much is better than not having enough, and at this stage in Chinese animation I’m more than satisfied with what was produced.

Sound (8/10) - The voice acting for Nezha, his parents, Ao Bing, and most of the side characters was superb. I hold mixed feelings about Taiyi’s Szechuan accent, and there’s this one muscular villager whose high pitched screams I honestly cannot stand. But overall I really enjoyed the voice acting, enough that I actually looked up the main voice actors since I loved their performance so much.

The weakest point of the movie, though, is the background music. There is a main theme that plays pretty much every time Nezha is on screen (which is frequent considering how he’s the protagonist), and at some point it just got really repetitive. The emotionally moving scenes also could have benefited from better sound.

Character (10/10) - I don’t think there’s a single character I hated in the entire movie, which is pretty unusual since I’m not one to love people easily. I adored the way that both of Nezha’s parents were portrayed, which consisted of a slightly more modern twist on more traditional characterizations. For instance, I expected his father to be a very stern man. While he was strict in the film, he also had a caring side that moved me to tears near the movie’s climax.

I also loved how none of the characters were truly good or evil. Even those who played an antagonistic role had justifiable reasons for doing so, which strengthened the thematic complexity of the movie. Nezha, especially, is the epitome of this, as his edgy/punk/tsundere exterior is really just the armor used to hide a soft, caring, cinnamon roll. While he smiles like an arsonist and speaks with words sharper than knives, all he desires is companionship and belonging. (My inner Bakugou Katsuki fan was squealing so hard when I saw Nezha on screen. I think he’s my new favorite character.)

Additionally, I really loved the beautiful and unlikely friendship that blossomed in this film. It was equal parts magically adorable and heart-wrenchingly depressing. My inner fujoshi may have enjoyed it a little more than necessary.

Enjoyment (9/10) - I’m going to borrow a phrase from our lovely Chinese internet buddies for this section, because it summarizes the movie so nicely: “魔童降世将笑点最后都化为燃点和泪点”. The movie has so many humorous moments, some of which require a decent understanding of the Chinese language to get, but most of which can be enjoyed by all audiences (though westerners may find it strange that there are so many jokes about peeing, drinking, and farting). But what makes the film truly special is how it revisits many of those initially humorous moments later in the story, and deviously twists them to hit the audience with the feels train. And you'd really have to be a brick to not feel the passion and the sadness.

Overall I rate the movie 9/10. I admit that it’s far from perfect, but I also believe it’s one of those films that’s really worth watching if you get the chance. Hopefully my review has convinced you to at least consider giving it a try.

At the end of this review, I just wanted to say thank you to all the 1000+ people who worked on this film for 5 years to make it a reality. Because it was truly a masterpiece that reminded me of all of those childhood days spent obsessing over that 52 episode Nezha kids cartoon, waving around a red Christmas ribbon and shouting at invisible enemies. It was a indescribably profound experience to watch the same story, 15 years later, reimagined as something even greater than it was before. Somehow, Ne Zha Zhi Mo Tong Jiang Shi retained all of the key features of the Nezha films that came before it, and yet synthesized them together in fresh and engaging ways. I left the theatre feeling empowered and inspired.

I really wanted to like this because someone I follow was just SO into it. And it made me cry a little, too, so clearly it connected with me on a deep level very few films ever do. But like... I just... don't like it all that much. And not because it made me cry. It gets a higher rating because of that very poignant moment.

This is a truly gorgeously animated film. The fight scenes are wonderfully made. The environments are breathtaking and beautifully detailed, with bright colors and fantastical landscapes and hyper-detailed towns that we really get to explore. The characters are for the ... most part really well designed and the humans are pretty diverse in design, too.

The biggest drawback is probably Nezha's regular human form. I just don't... find that appealing. At all. He's not cute. He's not funny. He's honestly kind of just cringe in a way that just grates at the back of your mind the entire film. Maybe if I liked animated features starring very young children more I would have been okay with this, but I just watched "The Legend of Hei" and that featured a very young child protagonist who I didn't mind at all, and found rather endearing.

That being said, it is Nezha in this form that made me cry, so it wasn't the sole thing that broke the camel's back for me in this film.

This is probably piggybacking on the overall story, which is "spoiled child terrorizes townsfolk". We get backstory that actually there are reasons he's the way he is - and it's not because he's a reincarnated evil spirit - and they are very sympathetic, and if you're watching the scenes where he's terrorizing people, he isn't actually don't that much that's really "awful", outside of one instance where he's using a giant wooden mallet to hit people poking their heads out of a carriage, and one instance where he nearly murders a group of children with a boulder. Mostly people just drive themselves into a panic and he gets close to them and they make things worse for themselves through self-injury.

That all being said, I don't really enjoy the story. It's not compelling. Particularly given that a good chunk of the story is just Nezha being a spoiled brat. Sure, he has reasons for how he is, and like I said, his story is sympathetic, but that's not... enough. I guess you have to remember this is a literal 2-3 year old who just wants friends, despite how mature he acts, and people are mean to him. But that's not a thrilling story for me. Yes, children shouldn't be bullied or ostracized, particularly because of their birth. And water is wet.

There are some very good messages at the core of this story. Messages about loving your family, giving people a chance, being a good neighbor, avoiding stereotypes and prejudgment, making time for the people you love, and I think that core message of making your own destiny, of choosing to do what's right, even if no one cares, even if it doesn't change how other people perceive you, even if you don't win accolades, even if you don't get to see that better tomorrow, is a very good message. It's painful, but it's a good message. I think. It's kind of just sad, really. And it's nice to see a story about parents with a cursed kid where the parents don't just kick the bucket before the principal story starts, or they're not incredibly abusive towards said child. And hey, Nezha's mom has lines! Multiple lines! In different scenes! And a story arc! And she fights AND cooks well! That's all a bit out of the ordinary. Usually that character is dead, abusive, or either cooks well or fights, not both at the same time! And dialogue lines on top of it all, jeez! Although it's more of an indictment on other writers/companies than praise for this, since the bar is so low.

I didn't find the fart and dick jokes and general gross humor all that funny, but that's par for the course, and they're not as bad as they often get in similar media. Although they are a bit more disturbing than usual when you consider that one party is a 2-3 year old. I didn't find the alcoholism interesting. The pig jokes... had their moments. Mostly the remote control nose thing. I even generally liked Taiya, but the gross humor frequently featured him, so he was really an eh character overall. His scenes also tended to turn flat really fast, and he does some of the more blah things in the story, so... Eh.

Ao Bing's cute. And apparently smart but completely oblivious to the entire reason for his existence, but okay, he's the info dump character I guess.

The music was pretty good, or at least it was used well. Probably the best two jokes in this are around the music and they're amazing. The other good jokes I can recall are also repeated, but used quite well, and these are all rather minor jokes. But good on that.

Overall I just... find this film kind of okay at best. I wish I liked it more. I wish I wanted to rewatch it, or watch a sequel, or watch a story in the same universe. But I don't.

If you want to watch a Chinese animated film about spirits with good fighting and gorgeous animation, if you can find it, watch "The Legend of Hei". That's pretty great. Or if you want something that's got spirits and stars an ostracized child who's working on changing his destiny, watch "Natsume Yuujincho". Or if you want a fantasy story about changing your fate with the central theme, watch "Revolutionary Girl Utena".

Finally a Chinese film that I actually enjoyed watching.

(I've already posted my review on IMDb, and I'd like to share my in-theater experience of Nezha on this site as well, if that is allowed by the policy.)

After months of rolling my eyes at the social media buzz about this supposedly "great Chinese animation", I finally found the one Regal theater in town that actually shows this Chinese-made movie. And oh boy, I'm so glad I did.

Initially, I was so turned off by this movie's trailer, since it had all the worst stereotypes of a Chinese-made films, with all the cheesy expositions, cringey dialogues, and awkward ... voice acting. I was so sure that "Nezha" was just another piece of garbage coming out of my home country's money-grabbing film industry that had become so shamelessly greedy in recent years. But my low expectations were pleasantly subverted.

After some struggling of finding a parking spot, I found myself in a relatively small-sized IMAX theater packed with young Chinese people, and a handful of white Americans, and one nice black lady that very much stood out in this crowd. And I'm almost certain that all of us enjoyed the two hours of fun and entertainment this film offered us, albeit on different levels.

Almost immediately after the movie started playing, I found myself already irritated by the unnecessarily long opening credits of all the production companies associated with "Nezha". This is one of the many shady industry practices in China, where all the entities involved in the film's production process shamelessly tried to promote their brands, regardless of how much actual contribution they've made. But shortly after the actual film began to show on the screen, I was easily won over by the opening scene where the famous Daoist immortal "Taiyi Zhenren" was revealed to be an obese and seemingly incompetent idiot. This scene was surprising to me for several reasons. It was a subversion of the genre trope. When it comes to the genre of Chinese mythology films, Daoist immortals were almost always portrayed as wise old men whose wisdom and authority are not to be questioned. And here in "Nezha", one of the most powerful and respected Daoist deities was portrayed as a buffoon who actually had real human personality. I know this small characterization would probably be unnoticeable and meaningless to non-Chinese audience. But me being a fantasy nerd who grew up in China and lives in US, I know how brave the filmmakers of "Nezha" must be to make the decision to actually make a powerful Daoist deity feel like a living and breathing human. I consider this as a successful subversion of the genre trope without being disrespectful to the original source material. And it's definitely an ingenious adaptation of the ancient Chinese folklore without being offensive to the actual real-life Daoist religion.

And at the same time, I was surprised to find myself laughing out loud like a child and ACTUALLY enjoying the jokes and humors of the film, which I think is very rare in Chinese films. Even though I haven't watched any Chinese film for many years, I'm aware of the awfulness and cringiness of the typical attempts at comedy by trying to crack an awkward joke between scenes in Chinese films. But here in "Nezha", I enjoyed all of the comedy in it, even though I can see how goofy it is. I consider goofiness in film as a good thing if it is done right.

There are more turns and twists than I expected throughout the film, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole ride. However, I have to point out, there are one or two very brief moments in the film, which I didn't appreciate as much. I know the filmmakers were being serious in those brief moments, trying to evoke a certain emotion from audience. But it didn't work on me because of the imperfect voice acting in those scenes which took me right out of the film. Don't get me wrong, the voice acting was absolutely awesome in "Nezha", much better than most films. But in certain brief moments, it just didn't work for me.

Now comes the only possible issue of "Nezha", which might be an impediment to non-Chinese audience's enjoyment of this otherwise flawless animation film. That is the English subtitles. I have to acknowledge that I myself could not do a better job than they did, at translating the Ancient Chinese mythological concepts into modern-day English while trying to make sense to an audience unfamiliar with Chinese culture at large. But I'd like to argue perhaps transliteration might be a better approach than imprecise translation. Also I have to point out, as with almost all foreign language films, the humors and multi-layered emotions of most dialogues in "Nezha" were inevitably lost in translation.

Overall, "Nezha" was one of the best Chinese entertainment I've experienced in recent years, even though I haven't really watched that many real Chinese films. I'm glad that "Nezha" got a huge box office success in China which it so very much deserves. I'm not so sure "Nezha" would be a hit elsewhere. It might get popular to a certain degree on some streaming platforms. But I doubt it will get mainstream popularity in US, since most American media's portrayal of everything remotely related to China has been so negative lately ever since the Trade War.

Anyway, for me, a fantasy-loving nerd who grew up in China and lives in US, I thoroughly enjoyed "Nezha". But I don't know the experience would be the same for everyone, since you have to have a certain willingness to put up with imprecise translation while at the same time trying to be culturally open-minded.

P.S. Sorry about my rambling in this long-ass review. But I can't believe I actually enjoyed a Chinese animation film so I have to take the time to write my genuine feelings about it.



(Additional comments: CHINA was a nation that had once gave the world the absolutely worst garbage film series ever produced by mankind. I'm talking about, of course, the infamous "Tiny Times" series by the famed gay novelist Guo Jingming. Ever since my great suffering by Guo Jingming's garbage films, I had never ever given any Chinese-made films any sort of serious interest until the year 2019. At the beginning of this year, there was the surprise box office success, the "Wandering Earth", which I also enjoyed. And now I'm thoroughly won over by "Nezha". I think it's been a good year for the Chinese film-making and we shall see if it will last.)

I stumbled upon this movie by accident and am I glad I did. For both a "G" rated movie, and a Chinese animation movie, this was an impressive film. The art style reminds me of Pixar meets Anime and I actually found it quite enjoyable.

Story - 9

Chinese mythology with a nice family approach, but still enough substance to entertain adults and children alike.

Art - 8

The characters looked very much like you'd expect from a Pixar movie, which is honestly very well done. The animation was generally very smooth and the scenery and backgrounds were very vivid and beautiful. The fight scenes were also very imaginative ... and fun to watch.

Sound - 7

There isn't much that stood out musically, but the music always felt like it belonged and fit the scene well.

Character - 7

The characters were all unique and interesting in their own ways, but most of the characters aside from Nezha didn't see any real character development through the film. Overall, they weren't bad, but nothing that stood out beyond the main character.

Enjoyment - 8

The film did an good job pulling me in to the story. It was a bit choppy with pacing at certain points, but it was overall a fun ride. The story flowed well and nothing felt out of place.

Overall - 8

This was a surprisingly good film. I was hooked fairly early in the story and the movie kept me entertained and focused so well, I barely realized that an hour and a half had passed by the end. If you are a fan of martial arts anime with a Pixar-esque touch, I definitely recommend checking this out.

TL;DR:

It's a fun tale of Chinese mythology with some enjoyable martial arts battles and a very nice story. While there is some cool action, don't expect a battle-shounen anime.