hiraishinnojutsu

Stunning visualization of chinese fantasy aesthetics, magnificent fluid animation, good story, good comedy, overwhelming sound editing, great action sequence; this movie has everything to propel itself to the 2.2 billion dollar revenue! Never have I believed such thing could be achieved by a non-american entity, but here we are, living in the age of what people informally call as "The Chinese Century" where the said country will do everything in its power to strengthen their global soft power, including through entertainment. This movies is to animation what Black Myth: Wukong is to gaming, which coincidentally both main characters met for an epic battle in the latter's original novel. You're very much welcome to rewind some incredible scenes as much as you want while watching it personally through DVD (or through any legal platform) because that's how visually stunning this movie is!

Great animation, solid acting by the VAs, good story, cool action scenes, and a comedic scenes that make you actually laugh (unlike some random babblings that forces you to laugh throughout mcu projects nowdays) a.k.a all the things you need to take on the world's global market side-by-side with hollywood are the things that you can find here, and if I'm allowed to be a little bit nitpicky, there is some part that I consider week and kinda make me off. But overall I had a good time watching it even though not through the theaters as I was being aware of the franchise's popularity not long after the second movie was released (5 years after the original). It's a fitting alternative to the dull and mundane hollywood with their weird massages and political agenda in all entertainment platforms. Ne Zha's traditional values is what gonna make people want to flock to the theaters again. Good job China, keep improving!!

7.5/10.

Not that I complain, well maybe a bit since I expected it to be Joko's take on (or his version of) The Raid based on the trailers alone, but it's still in the realm of good enough to see on the theaters. Acting was on spot; setting? No need to doubt, it's Joko; story or plot has some kind of depth, especially on its commentary on not just racism, but more importantly, on the long term effect of bad parenting. This movie is Joko's clear attempt on visualizing the famous African proverb: "A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth", and he succeed because I already got the message from the first viewing. So lower your expectation down, it's not about the fight scenes, it's about the message on how we should move forward as a nation in real life.

7/10.