Jiang Ziya

Beautiful art and graphics imbued with Chinese culture. Theme is philosophical and a long time ethical question. Character development is awesome and the story is very touching. You would understand many of the aspects better if you know about Chinese culture and history. The story is based on a 16th century novel called The Investiture of the Gods (Feng Shen Bang), which is set in the era of the decline of the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC) and the rise of the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 BC). It intertwines numerous elements of Chinese mythology, including deities, immortals and spirits.

It's evident from the very beginning that this movie intends to be not just epic, but cosmic. You don't need to be familiar with Taoism or Chinese mythology to grasp that Investiture of the Gods is in a long Chinese pop-culture tradition of reworking foundational stories of the gods: in this case, Jiang Ziya, who rises to become their king, but was seemingly a mortal first, and even banished from the heavenly court for some time. The film succeeds in conveying a sense of majesty, especially in the depictions of heaven, which combine a sort of astrophysical violence with digital-inspired vector graphics. The animation is in a particularly Chinese style, I think, distinguished by its speed (sometimes it's hard to follow the motion of characters) and video-game like aesthetics in the action sequences. But it's even more difficult to follow the story line - it seems the creators wanted to work in a lot of different materials without giving much background. By the end, the film is especially hard to follow. Despite that, both kiddos really enjoyed it, even if it was a bit scary, including for Sienna (turning 9 in a few months)

Maybe it's because I'm Chinese, I actually like this movie (actually, lots of Chinese doesn't). I guess you can enjoy it much better when you don't see this as a typical movie, but as an extension of the existing, very old legends of Jiang Zi Ya. I don't know if there are other similar cultures, but in China's loose, complicated fusion of mythology, the gods can be roughly divided into two groups - the ones that are high and mighty, which we build large temples to worship because we want to stay on their good side, and the lesser gods who we invite to our homes to guard and protect. The former is neither malice nor benevolent, while the latter cares deeply for us mortals because most of them started out as mortals themselves (historical figures with written acounts). Jiang Zi Ya is one of the lesser gods. He is also believed to be the head of all gods. Why the contradiction you ask? I can only suspect it's because he's on our side, he doesn't mind if we are small and insignificant and full of flaws. You don't need to learn any script or religious ritual to call upon him, you can be completely ordinary and he still cares. And most importantly, lesser gods can have limits, it's acceptable that they aren't perfect. In fact we prefer it this way because once they begin to see the "bigger picture" or the "greater good", it can only mean massive bloodshed among mortals. Anyway, that's the Jiang Zi Ya I grew up knowing. And this movie portrays it successfully. To write about the struggle of a powerful god is difficult, and this movie has only done a mediocre job. But I'm perfectly happy to see my beloved god readapted on the big screen.

I was 24 minutes in, and I desperately started chanting "please don't be a disappointment!" I've seen far too many Chinese movies (and of all types) to quickly get my hopes up for something that isn't what I expect it to be. And when someone reviewed this with a 5 and said that the "setting was too grand" and failed to deliver.. To that person I say : Buddy, you've never seen an actual terrible chinese movie, have you?

I would put this above Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon.

This movie takes a blank canvas and paints a world with beautiful lore of Gods, Spirits and Secrets, leaving the mystical to remain an unexplained mystery, yet doesn't alienate anyone. Somethings are better left unexplained, specially the magical kind. And the same goes for the cultural background of the story! This seems to be loosely based on an old Chinese novel.. but it's simple enough that someone with a ready mind can digest without issues. Might be easier for me since I've played too many stories and immersed myself in a large amount of video games.

The plot is very straightforward, and is not dumbed down by silliness (stupid characters, annoying plots, waste of time, etc.). It wants to tell you a story, and it doesn't deviate from it. Very refreshing and interesting. I LOVED IT, specially the way it ended. I'd give it a 10, but no movie is perfect (even though I can't really complain about anything with this one, not for what it is).

Apparently it's the 2nd installment of the "Fengshen Cinematic Universe" (sequel to 2019's Ne Zha, which I'll try to find now). But still, you can watch this as a stand alone (as I did) and enjoy it all the same.. be it for it's beautiful use of colors, CGI models and animations.

U going to be disappointed if u using Nezha standard to watch this movie. Slow pace but beautiful scenery to let u enjoy.Nice topic about sacrifice one to save all.Ending a bit rush.overall it's beautiful done.