Ne Zha: Here the journey begins

Ne Zha came to my life suddenly as a thunderbolt. One fine morning when I first heard about it, I didn't even know how to pronounce the name correctly. But thenceforth the name has almost surrounded me every day. From classrooms to cafes, parks to supermarkets, social media to friendly chit-chat, Ne Zha was everywhere. Interestingly, even in weekly 'English Corner' which I occasionally visit, one of the hot topics among participants was Ne Zha. In classes, teachers started giving examples of Ne Zha, which helped me learn more about the Sichuan connection of Ne Zha lately but before I knew that story, I was amazed to see the icons of Ne Zha almost at every public place where otherwise used to be the pictures of pandas.

I believe myself as a movie lover. Social drama is my favorite genre and I have watched hundreds of Chinese social dramas. Some of those movies have a very deep impression on me. But I haven't heard so many Chinese friends talking about a single movie at a time before. Even the walls of WeChat and Xiaohongshu (RedNote) were thickly painted with Ne Zha. Number of products were seen on the online markets with myriads of Ne Zha avatars. That made me even more curious about the film and waited for an opportunity to watch it.

Where there is a will, there is a way. One evening when I was scrolling WeChat moments randomly, I saw Ne Zha being live-casting. I could not stop myself from watching the whole movie in a single sit. But when it ended, I felt a series of questions unanswered. Later, I came to know that the one I saw was the first part of Ne Zha and the film that is hitting the global market is the second part. I didn't know Ne Zha part one was also a great success, some six years ago. The more I heard about the film; the more I became eager to watch the second part.

Fortunately, the International Office of our University arranged a special show for interested foreign students and I didn't think for a second to register my name for the show. One fine Saturday, full of vigor we gathered at the cinema hall to complete the full circle of my incomplete idea of Ne Zha, 'a stubborn kid'.

Definitely the technical avatar of Ne Zha is amazing which shows the Chinese mastery of animated movies. Breaking news of recent technical achievements of Chinese youths one after another has not only amazed the world rather encouraged them to appreciate their innovative hard work. In fact, the world is spellbound towards hard work and innovative ideas of young Chinese brains. Besides the pulling story of the film, throughout the show time, one question keeps on wandering in my mind — how artists can be so much creative? A magical brush, the glass palace, the underground world and many more shown in the movie are prosperous attributes of the imaginative artists behind the movie. The film is so meticulously crafted that every gesture attributes meaning. The art design of the film is awesome and it has impressed the whole world and how can that not impress me?

I have been living in Sichuan as a student for the last two years and these years, no matter how minuscule the time might be, I have known many parts of Sichuan culture. Therefore, I could easily reflect on the Sichuan culture depicted in the movie, may that be playing shuttle or speaking the Sichuan dialect.

The way the movie is presented, I believe that it has ability to cover-up a wide range of age groups. For children, it has its own stuff to show, for youths it has different messages to convey, and for adults some different things to decipher. Ne Zha as a stubborn, magical and supernaturally strong but ugly boy has become a good entertaining character for children. The responsible and struggling with the portrayal of the major characters has a good message to deliver for the youths. Family love, deeper human nature and victory of truth could be important takeaways for adults. Therefore, the movie has no age boundary.

The birth of two characters from one single whole and their complimentary co-existence on that single whole in the movie is a weighty depiction of Chinese ancient philosophy-Taoism as I perceived it. The philosophy of binary opposition co-existed within a single entity is the practical reality of human life. Nobody can be irrelatively good or bad. White and Black, good and bad, virtue and evil are the real aspects of every human being. Let's look at the character — Ne Zha. He is a stubborn boy whom the whole community is afraid of. He has been the cause of the problems for the whole village. As he is not well received as a part of the community rather, he is always kept away from villagers, he becomes an 'evil' for the whole community. While the whole village dislikes him, he later comes to the forefront to save the entire village. He is portrayed as a stone-hearted boy. But audiences see the soft part of Ne Zha when he cries begging sorry from his parents. Isn't it a beautiful character-building with necessary contradictions?

On the other side, another half of Ne Zha is shown as a handsome, humble and brave boy. But he grew up surrounded by the underground dragon-like creatures. Unless the film reaches the climax, all audiences believe that the underground world is evil. But lastly, it is revealed that evilness is not where it seems to be, rather evilness lives behind the eloquent masks. In our daily lives, we encounter many such hypocrites who show beautiful aspects to shadow the evil truth.

But in the end, no evil goes unpunished. At last, the failure of the villain and the success of the heroes make every audience believe in virtue no matter how beautiful the evil seems.

Global blockbuster animation movie Ne Zha that narrates the Chinese story of Chinese style has not only exhibited the cultural richness of Chinese civilization rather also shown the advancement of cutting-edge technology in China. It has shown that the new generation of China is ready to tell Chinese stories in the way the new generation of the whole world wants to see. Ne Zha, I think is a grand starting of this journey.

Niraj Lawoju is a Nepalese student studying at the Sichuan University's School of International Studies. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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