![]() Thus weakened, the climax of the film sees Ne Zha, dressed in clothes as white as snow, march out into the dark and stormy night and slice his own throat. ![]() When the Dragon King demands Li Jing hand over Ne Zha, Li betrays his son and hides Ne Zha’s two magic weapons. To realize socialism and build a better society, the young hero must break with his or her father and thereby destroy the patriarchal and paternalistic family structures at the core of so-called feudal society. Corrupt, counterrevolutionary, or ideologically backward father figures are a common leitmotif in revolutionary literature and film. The film’s treatment of Ne Zha’s father, Li Jing, is also notable. The film reinterprets their struggle as a battle between a young hero who despises evil and desires to serve the people, and a tyrannical Dragon King who oppresses the masses. Although it was released three years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, the movie’s take on Ne Zha’s fight against the Dragon King is nevertheless infused with intense revolutionary imagery and themes. When “Prince Ne Zha” hit theaters in 1979, it was the first big-budget color animated feature film produced in China. In the 20th century, however, modernizers sought to distance China from its Confucian past, and contemporary retellings have tended to imbue Ne Zha’s extreme sacrifice with a different significance. In traditional interpretations, Ne Zha’s decision to commit suicide to save his parents is treated as the epitome of filial piety. Afterward, however, his teacher uses the flowers, leaves, and roots of a lotus flower to create a new body for Ne Zha and bring him back to life. He slices off his flesh and carves up his bones, returning them to his parents in repayment for the harm he had caused. Before the sentence is carried out, Ne Zha decides to save them by killing himself. Mythic justice is harsh, and the heavens decree that Ne Zha’s parents must die to wash out the blood. Churning the waters with his sash, he disturbed the Dragon King’s underwater palace and later brutally killed the king’s third son in battle. When Ne Zha was 7 years old, he went to bathe himself in the legendary East Sea. “Prince Ne Zha” is based on what is arguably the most famous legend associated with the boy god: his battle against the Dragon King. Revisiting it today, after the towering success of this year’s adaptation, offers an interesting window into how the country’s animation industry - and the values it espouses - has changed over the past 40 years. “Prince Ne Zha’s Triumph Against the Dragon King,” released in 1979, at the beginning of the “reform and opening-up” period, is a beloved classic and one of the best-known Chinese animations of all time. Often whirling through the air on wheels of fire, with a floating red sash draped around his shoulders, Ne Zha is one of the few child deities in the Chinese pantheon.īut this summer’s blockbuster isn’t the first time Chinese animators have brought Ne Zha’s tale to the big screen. (“Monkey King: Hero is Back” previously held China’s animated box office belt.) The third son of deity Li Jing - sometimes known as the “Pagoda-bearing Heavenly King” - Ne Zha was born a troublemaker and a fighter. “Ne Zha” raked in more than 4.7 billion yuan ($656 million) in less than two months, making it the country’s highest grossing animated film and second-highest grossing domestic film of all time.Īlthough not as well-known abroad, Ne Zha is a household name in China, where he’s possibly the second-most beloved mythological hero after “Monkey King” Sun Wukong. This summer, China’s undisputed box office champion was a spunky, mischievous god-prince.
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