Brief Story Line
Story was set immediately after the events in the first movie where the bodies of Ne Zha (Lu Yanting) and his best friend Ao Bing (Han Mo) were destroyed. Ne Zha's teacher Master Taiyi (Zhang Jiaming) tried his best to recreate their bodies but due to some complications, they had to find other ways to complete the work. To do so, Ne Zha had to leave his parents General Li Jing (Chen Hao) and Lady Yin (Lu Qi) to go to Yu Xu castle managed by Master Wuliang (Wang Deshun - Wu Kong, Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre 2019 series etc) to complete three trials and collect a special treasure.
Meanwhile, Ne Zha's home was invaded by Ao Bing's father Ao Guang (Yu Chen), the Dragon King of the East Sea who agreed to a ceasefire while Ne Zha complete his quest. He tasked Ao Bing's master Shen Gongbao (Yang Wei) to guard Chentang pass. However, there were various complications that could potentially enrage Ne Zha and endanger his mission.
So what would happen to Ne Zha? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Before we saw this movie, my wife and I decided to watch the original first as we always prefer to have knowledge of the story and get the feel of the characters. It was not so easy as out of the various legal streaming services in Indonesia, only one (IQiyi) had it. And we were grateful that we did as it provided us a solid background and gave us better appreciation to this sequel. Even though the first minute of this movie showed brief summary of what happened earlier, but obviously it was way better for us to understand from watching the original, including various references and jokes.
As the movie progressed, we did feel that the story was a bit heavier than its predecessor with less amusing scenes and concentrate more on Ne Zha's quest and later his dramatic development. There were still few hilarious moments but the most significant difference was this sequel was way more action-packed. We got to see so many action sequence that totally amazed us with a climax that was so awesome that my wife clapped her hands too. The story telling was well done and never a dull moment which made the duration of 144 minutes did not feel too long. Oh, just like in the first movie, this one also got a funny mid-end credit scene which we were absolutely sure was to set up for another sequel to complete its trilogy (or maybe more). However, there was no post end credit scene.
The animation in here was just brilliant. It was visually stunning especially those under water scenes showing the Dragon castle, the all white Yu Xu castle, the beautiful dragons that my wife loved so much and of course the various fight scenes especially the extraordinary final fights involving the demon hunters, demons, dragons and Ne Zha and co. I really admired Jiao Zi's work who also wrote the screenplay for both movies & surely the future ones. And amazingly, the film's production budget was kept at around USD 80 million while its box office performance had reached more than USD 2.1 billion (at the time of writing) and become the highest animated film of all time & broke numerous records so far. Which is why I am glad that the movie was released in Indonesia and we were able to see it in the cinema like we were supposed to do.
The voice cast was wonderful as well. Even though I could not understand their dialogues but their voice acting were convincing and we could see their distinct characters. The movie itself was classified for all ages which should be entertaining for young children, though the story might be a bit too complex for them. And this complexity might be a bit of a challenge for audience as well (like people sat next to us who could not keep quiet and giving false comments due to their wrong understanding). My wife and I also felt that it had more dramatic element including an emotional moment towards the end. Although the first film also got touching scene, but I think this one had greater impact. Btw, we were also surprised with one twist that we really did not see coming, which showed Jiao Zi's brilliance as well.
In the end, this was one extraordinary movie that was absolutely entertaining. I could understand its appeal particularly in China where the story was based on popular 16th century novel "Investiture of the Gods" by Xu Zhonglin. It had been adapted into various movies and series, including the character Ne Zha (there was even one modern adaptation 2021 movie on Netflix). But I believe non Chinese speaking audience would be able to enjoy it too with its general plot of good versus evil, strong family relationship, friendship and its impressive animation, great story and plenty of humor. One thing for sure, despite general opinion that you could enjoy this sequel as it is, my wife and I are of the opinion that it would be much better if you could see the first one. So if you have not seen this in the theaters, it's highly recommended to do so before it's no longer playing and you can only watch it on small screen.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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