Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

Like Sun Wukong (Aka The Monkey King) there are many movies about Nezha. Some of these stories are pretty accurate to the original folklore. Others have elements from the original stories but kind of take their own path. Nezha (2019) is one of these.

Before I get into it, I’d like to talk about the translation. A lot of pearl clutchers will likely be up in arms about the subject matter of Nezha and I believe that is purely on account of the translation from Mandarin Chinese to English. For whatever reason it’s been decided that the word 守护者 (Shǒuhù Zhě) translates to “demon” in English when it more accurately translates to “guardian” for lack of a more accurate word. In English “demon” tends to imply something evil. In Chinese culture while a “guardian” might use trickery to some end, it’s generally seen as pragmatic and clever. These characters can be complex, often demonstrating faults and then learning important lessons on their path akin to Brother Coyote in Native American stories, or Paul Bunyan in European American folklore. Basically I’m saying people should just chill out and enjoy some cool stories from other cultures.

The story of Nezha starts out with the emergence of a chaos pearl or bead, called 混元珠 (Hùnyuán Zhū) or primordial pearl in literal translation. I don’t know what caused it but for some reason the existence of this thing was problematic and so it was refined into… let’s just call it a “good” seed and a “bad” seed, granted this might be an over simplification. [I know the concept of the “bad” seed or 魔丸 Mó Wán (magic pill in English) was introduced for the purposes of this movie.]

Long story short, due to some malicious interference, the bad seed was given to a pair of good parents. While the good seed was given to Ao Guang, the dragon of the East Sea, who reluctantly maintains the underwater gate to the underworld. You know the place.

The good parents give birth to Nezha, who is instantly regarded as a monster by the townspeople. But the parents do their best to raise the child to be helpful and compassionate. This is of course no easy task and young Nezha has a difficult time with it especially while enduring the prejudice of the village.

Meanwhile, Ao Guang hatches Ao Bing, a dragon infused with the good seed. As you may have guessed, Ao Bing is raised with malice and contempt for the ones who charged the dragons with the keeping of the underworld which they regard as a form of exile in itself.

This is my understanding of the story’s background. It’s difficult to differentiate so many translations of the story and determine which, if any, are an officially recognized cannon. Please forgive me if I have some major details wrong. I fully invite anyone who knows better to instruct me on the matter. God forbid I reveal my ignorance on the internet, but it is what it is.

I DO know Nezha (2019) goes off the tracks in making this story a kind of bromance between Nezha and Ao Bing. While these two are traditionally enemies, the two of them trying to be friends makes a whole lot of sense to me. They both have these similar situations with expectations placed on them, encouraging (or manipulating) them to be one thing or another. This also demonstrates the oversimplification of the “good” seed and “bad” seed and the fact that they are two different sides of the same coin. The idea of the yin and yang are prevalent in this plot line.

This had some pretty great humor in it. They full-on used the theme from Terminator at one point and drew attention to it. There was an ensemble actually playing it in the scene and everyone looked at them and they stopped playing and smiled sheepishly. It was great to hear it played with traditional Chinese instruments.

On the other hand there was this big gruff burly guy who you’d think would have a deep manly voice but he sounded like a little girl and screamed a lot. It was genuinely funny the first time and grew less funny with every iteration of the gag. They must’ve done it about seven times which was about five times too many. Like, we get it, he has a high voice.

The movie as a whole is pretty fun though. It is frustrating to watch Nezha try to be good only to have his actions misconstrued by the townspeople; of course it doesn’t help that he destroys half the town in the process. It reminds me of Frankenstein in that sense. Who’s the real monster here?

Eventually Nezha transforms into a kind of adult version of himself and engages in some pretty exciting fight scenes. We finally get to see him with an assortment of his magical weapons: Wind and Fire Wheels, Universe Ring, Flaming Spear, and the Enchanted Silk.

People are going nuts over the sequel to Nezha, aptly titled Nezha 2, which is not available to watch yet here in the states. People are even going in droves to watch the film multiple times but, if I understand things correctly, that might be for political reasons which I am loath to get into here… or anywhere for that matter.

Modern movies based on folklore can be a bit strange still but no stranger than Pecos Bill shooting the stars out and digging the Rio Grande with a fence post, so take it with a grain of salt and enjoy it for what it is.

Ever wonder what Nezha would look like as a vehicle? Well stop!