MARCH 18 — There are no spoilers below to the movie Ne Zha 2 but it should be emphasised that the film is too complicated to “spoil” with a few hundred words.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who, until recently, had no idea there was some smash-hit animation movie from China called Ne Zha 2 storming the box-office.
Heck I had not even heard of Ne Zha 1 (which came out in 2019).
Also, like many people, I just went to watch the movie last week because, well, everybody was raving about it.
Before that, I confess I wasn’t exactly gushing at the movie poster which looked like a cross between Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid.
However, like almost everyone, I came out with my mind blown. As in, totally blown.
I don’t even know how to begin this “review”. My head’s still reeling from the dragons, the fireballs, the spears, the mountain-sized cauldron, the million-strong armies of demon hunters, the Titan tree and its roots, the bow which fires light-arrows like a spiritual Browning machine gun, the lava flowing out of a gash in the sky, and on and on.
But, like trying to sketch a tornado in mid-storm, I’ll do my best to summarise what I saw… what I can only describe as fascinating confusion.
Okay, so there are these two cosmic slash spiritual beings, Ao Bing and Ne Zha.
One’s ice and one’s fire. One’s sorta heavenly and the other has demonic vibes.
Both want a physical body. All’s going well, their master finds a way to “insert” them into bodies, but something bad happens.
It seems there are rebellious dragons, all of whom happen to be chained up in a lava prison, scheming to cause havoc by unleashing hellish monsters at the location where Ao Bing and Ne Zha are doing their stuff.
(Clearly, I need to watch Part 1).
After a battle in which the sky opened up allowing trolls and monsters trapped in hell to attack Earth (whilst remaining captive, go figure), a scene which makes Lord of the Rings’ Battle of Helm’s Deep look like a kindergarten scuffle, Ao Bing’s new physical body was damaged.
Wanting to save his friend’s body, Ne Zha allows Ao Bing’s spirit to reside in his (Ne Zha’s) body, and he/they go on a quest to obtain some elixir of life which can repair the magical lotus plant (damaged in the troll attack) which can restore Ao Bing’s body.
But in order to get this elixir, Ne Zha has to complete three quests which involve defeating demons.
Yet halfway through the quests, tragedy strikes because Ne Zha and Ao Bing’s village is destroyed, apparently by the dragons that broke the truce (which came about because Ao Bing is the lead dragon’s son thus the dragon was like, okay, you people save my son’s body and I won’t wreak destruction on your land).
Ne Zha goes berserk because his parents are killed and now wants to go after the dragons — and we’re barely halfway through the movie.
Are you confused yet? Welcome to the club.
What’s remarkable about the movie is that people like me who haven’t seen the first film, while being quite lost and incapable of holding all the plot lines together, nevertheless find it immensely enjoyable.
The way director Jiaozi and Light Chaser Animation studios pulled this off make every other fantasy movie look like an RTM drama.
The plot, storyline and concepts in this movie are literally out of this world and it’s like nothing Hollywood — which can’t seem to help relying on time paradoxes after a few movies — has ever produced.
I mean, who ever thought about evil people being punished by being turned into immortality pills? Or a dragon claw which can turn the entire sky into a portal dripping lava from hell?
Or a kungfu master who can transform into electric currents under water? Or freezing spells which cause ice needles to emanate from the victim’s body?
Finally, I’m sure the main reason why the movie is a worldwide blockbuster is the other-worldly and spectacular visuals.
It’s 2025 and you’d imagine you’ve seen it all when it comes to special effects, CGI, “epic” battles and so on.
I certainly thought so. But how wrong I was.
When the insane Armageddon battles occur, I was genuinely sorry for the makers of films like Avengers: Endgame and Dune 2. Ne Zha 2 makes those movies look like classroom scuffles.
Words won’t do justice, so please go and watch it.
