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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 was amazed to my "Golden Core" ! [SPOILER-FREE]

This is undoubtedly the most beautiful anime I've ever seen in my life! It's much better than any other anime in the year of 2018, I would dare to claim. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves anime as I do.

I have mostly great things to say about this anime with a couple of complaints.

First of all, the arts, style, music and character design in this series absolutely amazed me to my "Golden Core"!

The artistic portrayal of ancient China is breathtakingly beautiful. Every frame seems like a picturesque poem. In fact I would call the ... animation style in this series as "Visual Poetry".

The music and all the ancient instruments appeared in the series are out of this world. The opening theme instantly brought me into this fantasy world where cultivators can fly so effortlessly on their swords and perform stunning arts of cultivation as one does.

The voice acting is great and gave each character a distinguishable persona and made the characters more relatable. Their struggles and the dynamics of their relationships makes me feel like I'm part of it. On the other hand, I did notice that some of the background characters' faces look more generic, bland and indistinguishable.

The plot of all the 15 episodes in season 1 did not quench my thirst for more content in this fantastic world. I want more stories in this beautifully animated world. I can't wait for season 2. I hope season 2 would be more epic and more ambitious than the first one.

Additionally, some people have assigned this anime into the Shounen Ai category, which I beg to differ. For my viewing experience, I didn't even realized this anime is adapted from a Shounen Ai novel until I looked it up on the internet. Since this anime is produced in China, I seriously doubt there would be an overarching theme about Shounen Ai. The Shounen Ai element would be very subtle, if there's any to begin with. I seriously pity those who decided to not enjoy this anime simply because it's labeled as "Shounen Ai".

I would even go so far to claim that this show can be a huge hit not just with avid anime lovers, but also with general audience, that is if Mo Dao Zu Shi is ever gonna be marketed properly here in US.

My only complaints lie with the sub translation. There's a heavy load of info dumped on me when I started the first few episodes. All the names are in Chinese which felt like a heavy task to me, although I did catch on with what is going on shortly after I dived into the series. When it comes to the mythologies and concepts in this anime, I very much prefer interpretation over direct translation. I would understand many concepts much better and quicker if it were not badly translated into weird English, which also slightly takes me out of this anime's artistic world. With all that said, I still appreciate all the hard work by the fan sub community, without whom I wouldn't have the privileged to enjoy this anime.

Overall I would give this anime a 10 out 10.

This is my first non Japanese anime. And I really hope it can get a second season produced smoothly. I'm very worried about the fate of this anime production since this anime did not go viral around the world as it should be. I honestly don't know what to do if season 2 production doesn't go as planned. I call for more support to this anime. And to all the fans in China, please tell Tencent to give whatever cash is needed for this anime production.