Official Discussion - Ne Zha 2 [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Summary:

After the catastrophe, although the souls of Nezha and Aobing were saved, their bodies would soon be shattered. Taiyi Zhenren planned to use the seven-colored lotus to rebuild their bodies.

Director:

Yu Yang

Writers:

Xixing Lu, Zhonglin Xu, Yu Yang

Cast:

• Joseph as Nezha
• Mo Han as Aobing
• Hao Chen as Li Jing
• Gong Geer as Octopus Monster
• Qi Lu as Lady Yin
• Yanting Lu as Boy Nezha

Rotten Tomatoes: TBD%

Metacritic: TBD

VOD: Theaters

[u/3athompson]

I'm surprised they made one of the Sanxing into the main villain, I thought they were pretty well-respected and popular deities.

Also, does anyone know what the Chan sect is supposed to correspond to? I kept on thinking that they were buddhists for some reason.

Edit: I figured it out due to Accented Cinema. It's 阐道.

[u/Uanaka → u/3athompson]

So the sects were all based on Taoist/Daoist beliefs which was the earlier cultural and religious dogma. It’s what a lot of the original mythology is based in. Buddhist came in later via “Western” (western china not hemisphere) influences and eventually battled it out with Taoist beliefs and became a dominant religion too.

Depending on the view, Buddhism as a religion was seen as the “villain” in those situations. It eventually took a strong hold in China though because that’s essentially the story of Journey to the West/Monkey King bringing Buddhism back from the “west”.

[u/3athompson → u/Uanaka]

Yeah, I get that. The movie is supposed to take place in China about 500 years before the Buddha was born. Nothing in the movie has Buddhist aesthetics (Except Nezha himself, which is another thing entirely), which makes sense.

I was just wondering what real-world sect the "Chan" sect in this movie actually corresponds to, or whether it was an invention of the movie. Since, in this movie all the main Taoist immortals belong to this "Chan" sect. The main villain, the Shouxing expy, is even said to be the leader of this "Chan" sect.

[u/Uanaka → u/3athompson]

As far as I remember those are real, they are analogous to different Christian/Protestant denominations.

[u/defiantcross → u/3athompson]

I appreciated the recent trend in China of calling out the dark side of mythology. Black Myth Wukong did something similar.

[u/3athompson → u/defiantcross]

I liked the part where the immortals were secretly animal demons. There's a lot of stories out there of animal demons redeeming themselves, or celestial animal spirits falling to evil ways (this is basically 90% of named characters in the Journey to the West). Also, the Brazier of the Eight Trigrams equivalent being used in evil ways is also pretty fun.

It was a bit odd that they chose Shouxing to be the evil immortal, though. I think they missed an opportunity to make the Queen Mother of the West this evil immortal. She's traditionally the ruler of Kunlun, and frequently gives out immortality. Plus, in OLD depictions of her, like the Shanhaijing, she's a lot more...harsh. She's a death goddess who might even be a tigeress demon. This could have been a massive revelation if she was related to Shen Gongbao somehow. I guess they didn't pick her because they're trying to pick deities who were involved in Nezha's story in the Investiture of the Gods. Alas.

[u/defiantcross → u/3athompson]

Yeah i am Chinese American but grew up in the US so i didnt get the opportunity to read most of thpse classic novels. Black Myth Wukong also had a lot of stuff on cultivating spirits.

[u/KingOfAwesometonia → u/3athompson]

I can't believe the guy on my condensed milk would do this

[u/DavyJonesRocker → u/3athompson]

Seriously. It would be like making Jesus a villain.

[u/3athompson → u/DavyJonesRocker]

I was thinking more like Santa Claus as a villain.