Jiang Ziya

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)

I gave Ne Zha, the prequel to this, more stars, but the storyline at times was a bit confusing & lacked a clear explanation on some of the main characters from gods to mortals & other creatures (i..e. Roles & relations to one another). In other series I've seen about the nine tailed fox it has been portrayed as good; disappointed in its portrayal here.

Otherwise storytelling was intelligent, sardonic, humorous, poignant. English voicing, often shaky in Asian films, was quite modern Western & culturally appropriate. Above all, the animation quality was good lacking only in individualized detail, e.g. In animals/humans the hair, skin subtleties were missing as well as detail in background objects.

This is China's attempt to set up a film universe like what Disney's done with Marvel. Last year we were introduced to Nezha, a popular character inspired by the 16th century Chinese classic novel "Feng Shen Yan Yi" (loosely translated as Investiture of the Gods). This year a quasi sequel to Nezha is brought to us in the form of another important character from the Investiture of the Gods universe - Jiang Ziya. Based on a real historical figure who helped overthrow the mad emperor of the Shang dynasty (King Zhou), Jiang Ziya is fictionalized here, yet true to the novel, as a deity-in-the-making who's already gifted with supernatural abilities and magical skills to help him rid the world of demonic beings.

Jiang Ziya is an intelligent take on the fictional tale from the Feng Shen fantastical universe. The movie remains somewhat loyal to the Feng Shen story in that it sets Jiang Ziya up as a divine celestial god from Heaven who was sent down to the mortal realm here on Earth to capture an evil fox spirit, Nine Tail, who possessed a young innocent but allegedly extremely beautiful maiden named Su Daji on the day she was heading off to become King Zhou's consort. Nine Tail and Daji shared an unbreakable bond (bound together by an ankle bracelet) since that fateful day as this pair of fox and human spirits became intertwined and destined to be together for eternity.

This film follows Jiang Ziya's journey to capture Nine Tail all the while attempting to release Daji from her unfortunate fate. Along the way, viewers are treated to beautiful rendering of colorful depictions of ancient China and cutesy character designs with top notch animations featuring fast paced kung fu fighting.

The storyline features elements and plots from the novel with added bonuses like the adorably cute heavenly fawn that acts like a puppy called Four Alike (whose Chinese name, "Si Bu Xiang", actually means the exact opposite - "Four Not Alike"). As in the novel, after the fall of the Shang dynasty, here too King Zhou is deified as a deity who manages the marriage affairs of mortals. And like the novel, the promise of deification to the nine tailed fox spirit for successfully completing her mission to seduce and overthrow King Zhou was not fulfilled as promised, thereby causing Nine Tail a lot of resentments and a desire for vengeance on the perpetrator.

I really enjoyed this film and that's maybe because I'm a big fan of "Investiture of the Gods". I find this much more enjoyable than last year's Nezha. I can't wait for it to release in 4k so that I can watch it again and certainly looking forward to next year's entry in this glorified Fengshen Cinematic Universe, "ErLang Shen" (God with Three Eyes). Until then, we still have the the live action version of this epic tale to look forward to (Director Wuershan's "Fengshen Trilogy")

This is not a story driven movie, so for those who go to the cinema expecting a complex and well crafted plot, they might be disappointed. In fact, the story is rather simple for such a deep lore and grand setting. But this is a character driven movie, and there is only one character that matters here, the title character: all the rest are there as devices to emphasis his arc. Some will argue it's a bad choice to make a movie in such way, and indeed, maybe commercially it might be. But for those like me who enjoys slower paced movie with a strong focus, this movie managed to grab my attention every second. I feel for the main character, I feel his emotions, I understand his motivations. Well done over all, not to mention It's masterfully and magnificently animated!

Don't believe the negative reviews. Most are spoiled by Hollywood. We don't need blatant exposition dialogues and to be spoon fed every detail of the back story.

This one is better than Ne zha, more mature, more character driven. Definitely wouldn't think it's a kids movie. One of the most moving movies I've watched for a while. Left me kind of sad though, despite the comedic mid-credits scene. I wouldn't watch it to be uplifted.

Absolutely worth the watch and doesn't deserve a smaller score than Ne zha whatsoever.