Ne Zha (2019) - I Hope Not!

★★★☆☆

What I don't know about Ne Zha is that this mythological kid is actually considered one of the Gods or say, Boddhisattvas, worshipping and protecting the Buddha-dharma! What I used to know about him in fiction is that he's born a good kid having to sacrifice his own life to save his parents and people related from being punished and executed by the God of Heaven after killing the Dragon King's son by accident. He's then pardoned and resurrected with help of the Buddha, and becomes a Boddhisattva in the end, but in the 2019 version of 'Ne Zha', he's born a badass striving to be recognized as a good soul but constantly denied and discriminated by the people. This brand new story is basically about a guy fighting against predestination, and his saying no to the suppression from high authorities.

'Ne Zha' is, in case you don't know, the second highest-grossing film of all time in China, surpassing 'The Wandering Earth' that is sort of mundane and cliched to me even though most critics praised it. The first one so far is 'Wolf Warrior 2' that is a piece of crap hands down! As an animated film, 'Ne Zha' is, to be fair, fun and watchable like the 'Kung Fu Panda' series. The theme however, is nothing fresh in spite of the redesigned characters, especially Ne Zha that, unlike before, looks hideous and behaves like a rebellious punk kid, plus a great amount of hilarious dialogues, which is indeed a surprise. The film is representing China to run for this year's Academy Awards as Best International Feature Film, but I think it's a long shot since the moral of the story is pretty old school, and nothing of a breakthrough. It's understandable though, because political correctness unfortunately is one of the prerequisites of being able to make films in China!

Ne Zha believes that it doesn't matter what people think about you. It's what you think you are that matters. That's why he refuses to be a slave to his so called destiny, and finally is able to overcome the demon inside and change what he's bound to be. He yells, if there's injustice, fight against it. That there's no such a thing as predestination that binds you. Resist it and make it your own! It reminds me naturally of what Hong Kongers have been yelling during their protests against the Government over the last 4 months. And it was shocking to see they'd got some Ne Zha's spirit of never backing down. After all, it sounds kind of ironic and sad that this animated feature is created by those who would in fact rather be obedient slaves than rebellious Ne Zha! Apparently it's in their blood, and maybe in ours too! I hope not!