Jiang Ziya

This film is the follow-up to 2019's acclaimed Ne Zha, though the link is not clear until the very end and the connection is more thematic. This film also draws on Chinese mythology with surprisingly good animation and energetic action sequences. The designs, colours and lighting are quite masterful with lots of stunning scenes like the dead souls or the (literal) stairway to heaven. I would say it's on the level of Kubo and the Two Strings, wherein any frame could be a stunning desktop wallpaper. The animation of the characters (as in, the expression and movement) is more action-oriented and less comical than that of Ne Zha. The story concerns the titular Jiang Ziya who is trying to solve the mystery of the Nine Tailed Fox and end his banishment. While engaging, it suffers from a lot of choppiness and jarring transitions - many of the flashbacks intrude quite suddenly, a lot of things are not explained and some scene transitions happen without warning (like the one spanning ten years!).

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)

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!

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 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.