Ne Zha; literally: ‘Birth of the demon child Nezha, is a 2019 Chinese 3D computer animation, fantasy, adventure film, directed and written by Jiaozi. Its animation production is done by the director’s own Chengdu Coco Cartoon. Featuring the popular Chinese mythological character Nezha, the plot is loosely based on the classic novel Investiture of the Gods, attributed to Xu Zhonglin.
It was released in China exclusively in IMAX and China Film Giant Screen theaters on 13 July 2019, followed by other theaters on 26 July, distributed by Beijing Enlight Pictures. It is the first Chinese-produced animated feature released in IMAX format, and, despite being the debut feature of its director and animation studio, and having no widely known actors in its voice cast, it has been one of the biggest commercial successes in the history of animation and that of Chinese cinema, setting numerous records for box-office grosses: as of August 2019, the film is the highest-grossing animated film in China, the worldwide highest-grossing non-U.S. animated film, and the second worldwide highest-grossing non-English-language film of all time. With a gross of over $725 million, it is the fourth-highest-grossing animated film of that year and the second-highest-grossing film of all time in China.
The movie revolves around the basic fact of good and bad. Therefore, it represents the Chinese yin yang expression of life’s duality. The movie starts with heavenly energies combining together to form the celestial pearl, containing negative and positive forces. Out of greed, student of immortal God separates both and give the good one to dragons, so that they can get a place in heaven and placed the evil one in the womb of a human fetus.
The human child born is named Ne Zha and is quite a menace. He continuously devastates the village and creates trouble for the villagers. Therefore, everybody hates him and maintain their distance from him. On the contrary, this annoys him more, as no one accepts him and plays with him. Leading an alone and trapped life, make him quick on anger and frustrated.
Over the course of time, when he learns his true identity, it really annoys him even more. Moreover, he also learns that after three years from his birth he will be struck with Heavenly lightning, ending his fate and life. After fighting with a good pearl, who is the son of Dragon and his only friend. He finds out, his father has arranged an agreement with gods according to which he can die in his place, hence saving his life. Soon after that he realizes that one is master of his own fate and what others say doesn’t matter at all. And whenever a person like him objects, obviously he is to be condemned by all, criticized by all, not answered.
In a nutshell, movies provide a great message that we are masters of our own fate and we should not be bothered about what others think about us, we are masters of our own fate and alone we are responsible for our actions.
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