Film Name: 新神榜：哪吒重生 / New Gods: Nezha Reborn
New Gods: Nezha Reborn is the only one of the seven new movies in the 2021 Spring Festival schedule that dares to be released in early theaters, which is usually one of two possibilities: either it understands its lack of competitiveness and wants to “sneak out” in advance to make more money, or it is confident in its own quality and wants to win some first-mover advantage in the movie schedule by relying on excellent word-of-mouth. Word of mouth to win some more first-mover advantage such as scheduling.
At present, it seems that the “New Nezha” of Chasing Light Animation belongs to the latter.
Honestly, before I have been less interested in this movie, repeated rehashing of the feudal god theme and a slightly strange style of painting, have led to the first impression of its “bad appearance” (I believe that many viewers have this feeling) …… But after watching, I just want to shout: really fragrant!
This animated movie combines elements of history, science fiction, fantasy and other genres, creating a rare visual spectacle of domestic films, dazzling, even if the narrative is not perfect, but the design and art style of the value for money, it is enough for me to blow up.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below].
The first thing you need to do when watching New Gods: Nezha Reborn (hereafter referred to as “Nezha Reborn”) is to forget that it’s a movie about Nezha, because you’ll barely see any of the “god-feuding” elements in the beginning. The first thing you have to do is forget that this is a movie about Nezha, because you’ll hardly see any of the “God-fearing” elements at first.
Apart from the opening sequence of a post-modern biker race, Nezha Reborn at first looks more like a picture of the Republic of China with a huge gap between the rich and the poor: the old Shanghai’s shabby yet smoky common areas, the steel bridge connecting the rich districts, the nightclub Wanlefang modeled on Shanghai’s Paramount, and the beautiful singing girl Kasha, etc., which makes one suspect that he or she has watched the wrong movie.
As the movie progresses, the genre elements become richer and more natural.
Nezha Reborn takes place 3,000 years after the war between the gods, in which the De family, the first of the “Four Great Families” in the East China Sea, is in fact the rebranded East China Sea Dragon Palace, where the Dragon King, Aoguang, controls the rivers and the dragons with his beasts of the sea and his mixed-heaven damask. Ao Guang, the king of the dragon, controlled the river with the beast of the sea and the aya of the mixed sky, and also controlled the water supply of the entire city of the East China Sea, the De family squandered the fresh water, the people of the people are not happy …… I would like to call it “Fengshen magical version of the Republic of China in the future of the cyberpunk”.
On the basis of the elements alone, Nezha Reborn does have a cyberpunk feel to it. In addition to the neon scenes, technological products and social structures, the extensive use of prosthetics is a typical sign, including Ao Beng’s mechanical spine (the new dragon tendon that brings him back from the dead), Ao Guang’s metal right hand, and Kasha’s mechanical right leg, to name a few.
But honestly, the genre style of this movie is hard to define, and more often than not, it’s a contemporary as well as futuristic sci-fi painting that reconstructs the fantasy landscape in our minds.
This is especially evident in the “New Dragon Palace”, where the Dejah’s lair, ostensibly the mansion of a mobster family, is in fact a dragon palace in disguise, with coral reefs for floors and glow-in-the-dark jellyfish for wall sconces, not to mention the waterfall in the backyard and the dragon’s abyss in the lobby.
The other dragon palace in the deep sea is also very unique, based on the shape of the jellyfish, added a lot of electronic and mechanical original transformation, both traditional and modern, as well as the Monkey King’s more “mechanical style” of the Water Curtain Cave, it is really refreshing.
In addition, Nezha Reborn’s character design is quite impressive, such as the underwater motorcycle-like shrimp soldiers and crab generals in the East China Sea.
My favorite character design in the entire film is the first wave of assassins sent by Aoguang to assassinate Li Yunxiang – a jellyfish spirit who appears as a floating lady, and a deep-sea monkfish monster (or “lantern fish” as we often call it) who appears as a masked man. The image of the two sea killers fully draws on the characteristics of the archetypal creatures, the former is beautiful, elegant, with paralyzing toxins, belonging to the streamlined aesthetic style, while the latter is bulky, brutal, powerful and heavy, with a strong wasteland punk temperament, and even a little bit of Zag Suuj’s sense of vision …… The two very different styles of painting, the characteristics of the speed type and the power type are skillfully presented together, so that the two are very different. skillfully presented together, let my eyes light up (unfortunately can not find stills).
In contrast, the image design of the dragon palace butler Sea Night Fork and the descendant of Lady Shiji, Miss Caiyun, are less prominent – but accordingly, their excellent action sequences are sort of a complementary score in another dimension.
Unfortunately, several characters in Nezha Reborn, such as Li Yunxiang, Ao C, Aoguang, etc., are just slender, handsome men with clear eyebrows……. It’s not that they don’t look good, but in this movie, where the overall style design is more “bold and demonic,” such characters are not as good-looking as the others. “The movie, so the beauty of the reverse somewhat ordinary.
Fortunately, the movie leaves one of the coolest settings for the main characters, namely the genjutsu, which are like style gods/summoned spirits. Not to mention Ao B’s aqua-blue Third Prince of the Dragon and Ao Guang’s black dragon, the most handsome Yuan Shen in the entire movie is Li Yunxiang’s fiery red, three-headed, six-armed warrior Nezha, who is formidable and unstoppable, and is really the most suitable for “fire” to play handsome …….
By the way, the soundtrack of “Nezha Reborn” is also a masterpiece, it knows how to combine with the climax scene to set the mood and stimulate adrenaline secretion, and almost all of them are modern electronic rock music, even the “Overture to the Club of Daggers” used by the Monkey King when he appeared in the form of his spirit is also “electronically mechanized”, which really goes to the head.
I think it’s necessary to spend so much time talking about the movie’s design and art style, because animation is a “picture first” form of artistic expression, and visual perception is always the basis of everything. Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers” ‘Western Wolves’ ‘Saiyuki Reload’ and other Japanese animation when the feeling: how the plot does not say, armor handsome, beautiful characters with subversive adaptation, it is easy to get innate good sense …… I can’t help it, most of the time people are such shallow visual animals.
Let’s talk about the plot. The movie’s story is not original but not clichéd either, the narrative is not good enough but it doesn’t pull the crotch either, so it’s not bad at all (I didn’t use the wrong word this time).
The background of the story follows the real list of gods, and then reinterpreted: arrogant and domineering, even made a big mistake Nezha attracted the Dragon King of the Four Seas to force the palace, and preferred to cut his own throat rather than admit his mistake, and a wisp of his residual soul disappeared into the reincarnation, and constantly reincarnated on earth. 3000 years later, when the list of the gods is about to be rearranged, the Ao family of the East China Sea once again discovered the reincarnation of Nezha’s Li Yunxiang, in order to eliminate the hidden trouble, they intend to exterminate Li Yunxiang, who started to awaken, just as they did before. In order to stop the hidden danger, they plan to silence Li Yunxiang, who has begun to awaken, just as they did before.
The main conflict in the movie is Li Yunxiang’s uncontrollable and reckless behavior since his childhood, which leads to the heartbreaking question: Nezha is born to bring disaster to those around him.
This accusation seems to be justified and based on reason, but in fact there is also a concept of stealing and avoiding – take Li Yunxiang destroyed the water pipes of the De family, his original intention was to see the little girl can not fight the bleak water, but this behavior has led to the city of East China Sea for a few days of water supply, at first glance it seems to be a bad thing Li Yunxiang’s good intentions, but who is it? In so harshly restricting the daily water supply?
Li Yunxiang’s awakening and growth is typically divided into three stages: “I am Nezha” when he discovers and gradually accepts that he is the reincarnation of Nezha and begins to learn to master his powers; “I am not Nezha” when he realizes that Nezha has committed many crimes in the past, and that he is the one responsible for the disaster that has affected his father, siblings, and that he does not want to repeat the same mistakes and lives his life to the full. I am Nezha”; ‘I am Nezha’, who realizes that Nezha has done many evil things, and that he does not want to repeat those mistakes, and lives his life to the fullest; and ‘I am Nezha’, who is recognized by the Original Spirit, and who is reintegrated into a new spirit to save the day.
This corresponds to the three realms of life, which we often refer to as “looking at a mountain is a mountain, looking at a mountain is not a mountain, and looking at a mountain is still a mountain”.
Of course, it sounds like a good movie, but there are still many problems in the actual movie, such as the characters are not prominent enough, the roles are too many and too many, and the configuration of the drama is loose and so on.
Crucially, Nezha Reborn’s narrative experience is heavily driven by visual spectacle, and when that wears thin, all of the aforementioned faults that would otherwise go unnoticed by the viewer come to the forefront.
The last part of the movie, which is named here, has exhausted the freshness of its signature “fusion of elements” due to the increasing proportion of metaphysical elements in the second half of the movie, but it fails to make up for it in action sequences and twists and turns, which ultimately results in the climactic scene in which Li Yunxiang defeats Ao Guang, which is neither powerful nor enjoyable. It’s also not very enjoyable.
It’s a shame that Nezha Reborn fails to complete its most colorful character, the Monkey King, who is disguised as a masked man/six-eared rhesus macaque to take refuge on earth (it’s probably 80% to 90% done), but with a little more background and behavior, the dashing Monkey King could have been a great character. With just a little more background and behavior, the image of this dashing, powerful, grotesque, good-and-evil shunned mentor is a done deal, and I think it’s still the result of cramming too much into the entire film.
That said, the flaws in the movie don’t change the fact that Nezha Reborn is a successful adaptation of the “List of Gods”, which not only follows the original by illuminating the reality of the Hierophant and Interdictor sects fighting each other, but also innovatively begins to throw in the out-of-the-box idea of eschewing the New List of Gods, which is both traditional and refreshing at the same time.
This is the ideal mode of adaptation, disassembling, digesting, regurgitating, absorbing, and recreating, and only in this way can a traditional script that has existed for many years take on a new luster.
Speaking of which I can not help but want to say a few more words, many people always think that the domestic back and forth to shoot the list of gods, Journey to the West and a few other big IP caused by aesthetic fatigue, is the lack of creativity, in fact, adapted scripts and original scripts is a two-way street, there is no need to have to be involved (Hollywood full of scripts abound in the world of the behavior of the search for the scripts), the ancestors left behind a good source material is placed there, why not use it? The key is still to look at the level of adaptation, besides, standing on the shoulders of giants really have an inherent advantage.
Take the animated feature films of the past few years, the first three “Little Door Gods”, “Tea Pets”, “Cats and Peachtopia”, regardless of the word of mouth and box office are not ideal, until the fourth “White Snake” to turn a loss into a profit, so that the chase of the light to taste some of the taste of both fame and fortune.
The transformation of the style (more adult) and the improvement of the quality of the work are of course the main reasons, but the factor of the story theme can not be ignored – the same is based on traditional folk myths and legends, Xiaobai, Xiaocing two snake demon’s popularity and audience edge, can be too much higher than the God Tantui, Yubi two door god… …We complain about watching the same old faces over and over again, but on the other hand, we can’t help the fact that many viewers love to watch the same old faces, whether it’s old wine in new bottles or new wine in old bottles.
Nezha Reborn also has competitors in the same time period, although it is not as good as Ne Zha in terms of narrative pacing and story completion, but if we are talking about pioneering genre stylistic attempts and the continuous output of IP series, I’m afraid that Chasing Light Animation’s work is better than Colorado House’s Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child and Legend of Deification. Legend of Deification.
It’s a great blessing for the audience that there is comparison, competition, and a blossoming creative environment that can only give birth to more excellent works.
New Gods: Nezha Reborn has already won me over with its diverse genre design and outstanding graphics, so I’m sure the next installment won’t be far behind, will it?
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