Ne Zha： For the classic transformation of ＂going against the sky＂

Note: This article has spoilers.

As early as the trailer at the beginning of the year, "Nezha" in Ne Zha attracted a lot of discussion. He wore dark circles and dark smoky makeup, showing two rows of gloomy teeth from time to time, and violently confronted passers-by who fled in haste. This unprecedented image of "street bully" seems to subvert people’s cognition-but it also reminds the audience that the image of Nezha has never been static …

"Magic Boy" Nezha

All kinds of Nezha.

There is no doubt that Nezha in Ne Zha appears with a subversive appearance. Whether it’s the ingenuity of the creative staff or an accident, this Nezha, who looks a bit like lost face, is actually more appropriate to his original image. In the final analysis, Nezha, who appeared as a child in China, was actually a foreigner. "Nezha" is a deity in Indian Buddhism, which is the transliteration abbreviation of Sanskrit NalaKūvara (full name Naqijuvaro or Naluo Jiupo). He is the third son of the King of Pishamen in the north, and his image is a ghost king with three sides and six arms. His duty is to protect Buddhism, eliminate evil and protect the world.

As for the image of Nezha, which is now a household name, it actually comes from two popular novels in the Ming Dynasty, namely The Journey to the West and The Romance of Gods. Judging from the storyline, Nezha in The Romance of Gods seems to be the prequel of The Journey to the West and Nezha. In the Romance of the Gods, Nezha finally became the pioneer of Jiang Ziya, aiming to "rebel against business", while Nezha in The Journey to the West listened to the jade emperor to suppress Wukong who "rebelled against business" and then listened to the jade emperor to help the Monkey King.

Nezha in "Make a scene in Heaven"

After the deification, Nezha’s identity has a natural legitimacy. The Romance of Deification complements Nezha’s process of becoming a deity, making it more divine. According to the legend of Nezha’s subduing the dragon in the Romance of Gods, the people endowed him with the functions of exorcising evil spirits and controlling water by rain. At this time, Nezha has completely turned into a healthy and lovely child image, so she is regarded by her parents as the god of keeping children alive, and then she has the same godsend power as Guanyin. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the folk legend that Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao built the inner city of Beijing in the early Ming Dynasty according to the image of Nezha with eight arms, thus protecting the stability of the imperial city gradually spread and became a part of the folk culture of old Beijing.

Coincidentally, in the past animation works, The Journey to the West and The Romance of Gods were marked with "Making a scene in Heaven" and "What makes a scene in the sea" (and "The Legend of Nezha") respectively. Among them, "Make a scene in Heaven" basically follows the original novel, and Nezha in the cartoon appears as the villain to suppress the Monkey King, which is not only rigid (almost without lines), but also has few scenes (even less than the TV series The Journey to the West in the same period), so it is really difficult to get the audience’s love. In sharp contrast, Nezha in "What makes a sea" vividly portrays an innocent and kind boy who loves his parents and cares for the people. It can almost be said that the image of Nezha, which is traditionally recognized by many people, comes from What makes the sea?

Where is the sea?

Probably for this reason, Ne Zha’s many settings can find the shadow of "What makes the sea". The story takes place in Chentangguan, Nezha is the third son of the company commander Li Jing, and Nezha’s master is also a non-mainstream "Taiyi real person" who has a wonderful appearance and speaks Trump. The appearance of Nezha when he was born in the cartoon is the same as that in "Romance of Gods", "I was pregnant for three years, and when I was born, I was a meat ball, with a child in it, a gold bracelet on my right hand, and a piece of HongLing around my belly, shining with golden light. The statement that the spirit bead incarnates can also match the number. Even the cartoon set the villain Shen Gongbao as a leopard, which is not without trace in Romance of the Gods. After all, Jiang Ziya, his elder brother, was "a Taoist priest for only forty years", while Shen Gongbao had been a Taoist priest for thousands of years before he joined the Buddha at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. It is not clear that these times were used to cultivate an adult. In addition, a large number of Taoist instruments such as "puppet symbols" also made the audience feel cordial.

Fantasy myth

However, the connection between Ne Zha and the cartoon "What makes a sea" and even the novel "Romance of Gods" almost ends here. The whole story has been completely reinterpreted and completely reinvented. For example, Nezha in the cartoon is no longer the reincarnation of the spirit bead. On the contrary, under the conspiracy of Shen Gongbao, she has become the incarnation of evil, the reincarnation of the "magic pill". In turn, the reincarnation of "Lingzhu" became the third prince of the East China Sea Dragon King, Ao Bing. The encounter between the two protagonists is no longer like "What makes a sea". When they meet, they don’t fight. As a result, Nezha killed Ao Bing with a dry Kun circle and took away the dragon tendons. On the other hand, it became two people who rescued the little girl taken captive by the hag at the same time, so they became friends.

Ao Bing in Ne Zha

This is a far cry from the story of the Romance of the Gods (which can be regarded as the original)! Even reminiscent of the 2016 summer movie "The Legend of Gods". At that time, some people criticized that this adaptation, which was under the banner of a famous book but subverted the traditional cultural aesthetics, had nothing to do with China’s original novel Romance of Gods, except for a few names, including details such as picture style, story background, character setting and props. If we expand it again, this kind of work can be called a work that breaks the inherent cognition of myth (not limited to animation), or even limited to the Romance of Gods. For example, Stephen Chow developed a series of Westward Journey, and successively launched subversive adaptations of Westward Journey to Conquer the Demon and Westward Journey to Demon. Xinghao Film has successively developed the visually-led "Journey to the Heaven", "Journey to the Monkey King Thrice Defeats the Skeleton Demon" and "Journey to the Daughter Country". These five "Journey to the West" works have been making a fuss for five years in succession.

To some extent, Ne Zha is not so much an innovation of classics as a contemporary fantasy work covered with ancient "myth". The anthropomorphic image of the mixed pearl in the opening title is somewhat similar to the Decepticons in the live-action movie Transformers, and the reason why the Dragon King stayed at the bottom of the sea was to suppress all kinds of demons, which is also easy to remind people of the similar settings in last year’s "fantasy blockbuster" The Age of War.

Needless to say, the craze for fantasy films since this century is largely due to the two "masterpieces" of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. For this reason, China’s online "fantasy novels" also started from the imitation of modern western fantasy novels. Until the setting of Ne Zha, there is still a distinct mark in this respect. In the traditional myth of China, the dominant position of human beings is indisputable. Humans not only dominate the earthly society, but also become immortals through cultivation. These include the "immortal" who ascended to heaven in the flesh and the "god" who was upgraded after death (this is also the reason why everyone in the Romance of Gods is reluctant to enter the list of gods, because then they have to die first). Of course, other things can also become immortals, but the cultivation of "human form" is often the first step for them to ascend to heaven (which implies the superior position of human beings), and then they are more regarded as "fairies"-because the establishment of "immortals" is really tight. Therefore, the Monkey King was a "demon monkey" when he was the Great Sage of Qitian in Huaguoshan, and only after he was recruited and became a Bi Mawen did he become the "immortal" in the mouth of the land god. In modern fantasy films in Europe and America, the dominant position of human beings is greatly degraded under the animism, and they can only share the world with other races (elves and dwarves). Ne Zha was obviously influenced by this thought. In the cartoon characters’ mouths, "demon clan" and "dragon clan" have become completely different from "terran". Chentangguan has become a frontier fortress against the "Terran" and "Demon".Therefore, Li Jing and his wife have become experts in exorcism, which is not the same as Li Zongbing who only knows how to kowtow to the Dragon King and beg for mercy in "What makes the sea".

Similarly, the "dragon" in Ne Zha also makes people feel a little strange. Chinese is generally filled with awe of dragons. Its traditional image is dignified, noble and sacred, and its main duty is precipitation. The Dragon Palace in "Make a scene in Heaven" and "What a scene in the sea" perfectly fits this point. He is the underwater version of the palace on earth, and the distinguished dragon king rules all the aquatic animals in the magnificent underwater Forbidden City. In contrast, the Dragon Palace in Ne Zha is more disgusting than pitiful. Nominally, it is the "Dragon Palace", but actually it is just a prison where the gods of heaven imprison the "Dragon", which is gloomy and horrible. As a result, although the "dragon" in Ne Zha appears with Chinese appearance, it has some evil features of the western "dragon".

Hero or friendship

In fact, Ne Zha’s story is set, that is, in order to get rid of the fate of being trapped at the bottom of the sea for generations, the Dragon King cooperated with Shen Gongbao to turn his third son, Ao Bing, into the reincarnation of a "spirit bead". Three years later, when Nezha, who was reincarnated as "Magic Pill" for three years, was killed by lightning, Ao Bing had cultivated into a complete human form, ascended to heaven, and changed the fate of the whole race.

This naturally makes the audience have a strong interest in the fate of the protagonist Nezha. Will Nezha reincarnated by Magic Pill become a devil? What will happen to his fate after three years? Ne Zha seems to want to tell an inspirational story. Nezha’s parents and master Taiyi refused to give in to fate and prepared to train Nezha into a good man. Nezha himself, under the action of "Gankun Circle", suppressed the evil nature. Unfortunately, the image of Nezha who fought hard without bowing to fate, which was created by most TV series, became illusory when the thunder came at the end of the film. Nezha, who just shouted "My life is in my absence" to Ao Bing, an enemy and friend, gave up and was ready to accept the helpless punishment of fate …

From this point of view, as far as the depiction of the spirit of resistance is concerned, Ne Zha doesn’t even retreat from "What makes the sea" decades ago. In the latter, Nezha, forced by the flooding of Chentangguan by the Dragon King of the Four Seas, cut the flesh and returned it to his mother, eviscerated the bones and returned it to his father. Taiyi real person picked lotus flowers and lotus leaves from Wulian pond to turn Nezha into a human body, and presented him with a musket, a hot wheels and a leopard skin, in which were placed a dry Kun circle, a mixed silk and a golden brick. Nezha, reborn from nirvana, broke into the Dragon Palace, completely overthrowing the Dragon King of the Four Seas, and finally changed from an innocent and naughty little urchin to a heroic and invincible young hero.

Where is the sea?

Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child

Nezha in Ne Zha, of course, can also be called a "hero"-after all, he saved the whole city when Aobing wanted to bury Chen Tangguan in ice. However, another point that the animation focuses on seems to be more intense, and that is "friendship". Nezha, who was born as a "magic pill", was not accepted by the whole city. Only a little girl once extended her hand of friendship to him. After meeting Aobing at the seaside, the two men who were supposed to be at loggerheads became friends. Because of this, Aobing gave up the easy victory (just wait for the lightning to destroy Nezha) and helped Nezha, who was out of the control of Gankun Circle and possessed, to come to his senses. Also because of this, Aobing exposed his identity in front of human beings. Excavate, who had just survived because of his help, turned his face against ruthless and began to "catch the demon", which made Aobing, who had no choice, kill his heart. His plan finally failed because of the divine power of Nezha, but Nezha also chose to spare his life for the simple reason that "you are my only friend".

When the thunderbolt that arrived on schedule was about to destroy Nezha, the power of friendship drove Ao Bing and Nezha to face the heartless thunderbolt together … The ending further explained the theme of this film, and they didn’t get rid of their fate because of the help of magical power. Although it is not a happy ending that Chinese people like, the souls of Nezha and Ao Bing have been preserved with the help of Taiyi, which seems to imply that their friendship will last forever. This is Ne Zha, a contemporary fantasy story under the surface of a classical myth this summer. Although it won’t break the audience’s mindset about Nezha’s legend, it is still a "fate-defying" transformation of the classics.

[Specially published by Shanghai Literature and Art Review Special Fund]