A mouth of small steel teeth, two black circles, hands in the pocket, with a bad smile, in the "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending" announced the trailer, many people can't believe that this "little devil" in the film is Nezha.
Poster of "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending"
Many people bluntly said that it was "too ugly", but after the movie was released, the Internet became a large-scale "true incense" scene. On the two days of release, the box office has reached nearly 400 million, and the Douban score is 8.7 points.
In fact, image subversion is not the biggest highlight of this movie. It does not repeat the myths and legends that everyone remembers, but tells a story about fate and stereotypes. How did the pink-clad Nezha "blacken"? We talked to director Dumplings.
"Nezha's Devil Boy Descending" director Dumplings
Subvert Nezha: I like Nezha's spirit of not recognizing his life the most
The real name of the dumpling is Yang Yu, after 80. Outwardly loyal, he says "Trump", but has a rebellious heart. He graduated from the School of Pharmacy of West China Medical University, did not find a stable job, but "leveraged" animation.
In 2009, he spent 3 years to create a short film "Hit, Hit a Big Watermelon" that swept the Internet and became famous.
Later, he spent 5 years creating "The Demon Boy of Nezha".
Q: Why did you want to create "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending" at that time, and what was the source of inspiration?
A: Because I was originally a medical student, I switched to animation, and I also encountered a lot of prejudices and bumps in the pursuit of my ideals. It's hard to get a chance to make a big movie, and I want to make a theme that turns the fate and breaks stereotypes.
We screened a lot of classical Chinese mythological images, and felt that Nezha was an unruly, rebellious, and daring young hero, so we decided to use him to carry this theme.
Q: Some netizens do not understand the shape of this version of Nezha, and feel that it is different from what they saw before, what is the reason for this?
A: Because Nezha is the reincarnation of the magic pill and is a child who is a little evil, he made such an image. If you make a very well-behaved, very cute child, that feeling is wrong, and it doesn't fit into our theme. The people of Chen Tangguan could not have been prejudiced against such a cute sunshine little Zhengtai.
Q: What's your favorite thing about Nezha?
A: I like his spirit of denial of life the most.
Q: How does the spiritual core of Nezha's "denial of life" lay the groundwork and make the audience resonate?
A: We let everyone see the good side of Nea. As a magic boy, he has a human side. He has a child's appeal, to play, to find a companion, so we are based on his loneliness. He was very lonely and very much wanted to be accepted by his peers around him.
So when his father lied to him that he was the reincarnation of the Spirit Pearl, he really thought that if he did good things for everyone, everyone would look at him again. In the end, he was also inspired by his father's love and decided to be a hero as his father said he would do whatever it took, even if he died.
Nezha is a magic boy, and Li Jing is a good father
The image of Nezha has a long history, and there are many related works. Everyone is most familiar with him, he beat Ao Bing, cut the bones and returned the father to the flesh and return the mother, and he is often given the meaning of rebelling against the patriarchy. But from the perspective of dumplings, Nezha is just a child who breaks through prejudices and finds himself.
He comes from myth and from the present. Everyone in the movie suffers from prejudice, but Nezha says, "My life is up to me." Some netizens said that this is an ode written for all "outliers".
Q: In the movie, Nezha is set as "Magic Boy", which is very different from the previous Nezha image, what are the characteristics of this version of Nezha?
A: The Nezha of each era will talk about the spirit of the times at that time. Nezha in "Fengshen Yanyi", just like the villain, makes trouble without reason, and when he encounters a disaster, he asks his master for help, and his master kills him without asking, and that image is not what I like.
The one I really liked was 1979's "Nezha Noisy Sea", and later I found the original work because of the movie, and the real Nezha startled me.
So after we decide on the theme, we don't have so much baggage. Since Nezha in 79 is so big that we like it, so if we change it, as long as it can serve the contemporary audience and conform to the current spirit of the times, it should be a good adaptation.
Screenshot of the video of "Nezha Noisy Sea"
Q: What classic plots are retained when the adaptation is made?
A: For example, Nezha did hit the Sea Night Fork, the Night Fork did kidnap the child, and Ao Bing and Nezha did have a big fight when they met. The flooding of Chen Tangguan has become an ice pressure on Chen Tangguan, Chen Tangguan will still encounter a crisis, and some plots are still similar to the previous ones.
Q: You are from Sichuan, are there any Sichuan features in the movie?
A: Taiyi Zhenren's dojo is in Jinguang Cave, Qianyuan Mountain, near Jiangyou City, Sichuan, so we made Taiyi Zhenren's accent "Trump", which is our characteristic.
There is also the boundary beast, we referred to the cultural relics excavated from Sichuan Sanxingdui when designing, Sanxingdui is from the Yin Shang period, and it is also quite historical.
Video screenshot: Li Jing and Taiyi Zhenren
Q: Did you put in some of your own experiences during the creative process?
A: For example, his parents' design. In many previous works, Li Jing was intolerant of Which, and the feelings between father and son were very contradictory. When I was making this movie, I had some reflections from my parents, because their tolerance and support have allowed me to get to this day on the road of changing careers, which is also a kind of gratitude to them.
Video screenshots
Q: What is the difference between Nezha's spirit of rebellion and the return of the Great Sage in Journey to the West?
A: In fact, the Great Sage is not a rebel, he is just pursuing that feeling of freedom. He was born into this world, fatherless and motherless, pursuing the release of nature. As long as there is any resistance in front of him, he naturally wants to break through this resistance.
In fact, in the original work, Ne Ya did not rebel against the patriarchy. In the original work, Ne Ya is more like a villain image, and Li Jing is a character who swallows his voice. When Nezha's father was really embarrassed, he knew that Ne Gu was the reincarnation of Tai Yi Zhenren's disciple, and he couldn't afford to provoke it, so he had always been careful with Na Da. Sometimes I can't stand a few words of reprimand, after all, it is his son. Later, after the adaptation, on the contrary, Nezha was labeled as a rebel against patriarchy, which was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Many times, I think we should not accept many things as classics, and many times we should also take the essence of it and remove its dross.
Screenshot of the video of "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace"
When everyone does not say the rise of the national comic, it really rises
Speaking of the glory of Chinese animation, it is impossible to avoid the "Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" in 1961 and the "Nezha Noisy Sea" in 1979. They applied ink painting, Peking opera, and folk music to animation, laying the foundation for the "Chinese school" in animation.
After experiencing the impact of Japanese animation and European and American animation, traditional theme animation has quietly awakened. In 2015, "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" became a phenomenon-level work. When "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending" was screened, some people also called it "the best domestic animation of the year".
But for domestic animation, it seems that it is not so simple to really rise.
Q: Have you encountered any difficulties in the process of creating a film?
A: Every day is difficult, there is nothing that is not difficult. As long as you want to do your best, every little detail can be infinitely in-depth. In the end, the producers put pressure on me every day, hoping that I would not pursue so extremes, because the money was indeed burned out, there was no way to continue, and the company was going to collapse.
Q: Many people have great hopes for "The Return of the Great Sage of Nezha", thinking that it will break the record of "The Return of the Great Sage", will you be stressed?
A: There must be pressure, after all, so many people have invested so much energy and effort. If something comes out that can be recognized by the audience, this is the biggest encouragement to us. But we are also very calm, because we have done our best, and we are worthy of ourselves and will not regret it, so we can accept any kind of result.
Q: Is Nezha's Demon Child a family movie?
A: At the beginning, what we wanted to do was the most favorite movie for teenagers, our main creators were all young people, and first of all, we wanted to do what we liked, which was the highest goal.
We don't exclude child audiences, and if they walk into the cinema and feel the camaraderie in it, we're happier.
Q: Usually people divide animation into young and adult, what do you think?
A: We don't deliberately distinguish, I think don't think of age division as a framework and a burden, so that it can be regarded as labeling the work, which is exactly what we oppose.
Q: Everyone is talking about the rise of national cartoons, how do you think domestic animation films can be regarded as rising?
A: When people don't say that Guoman is rising, it really rises.
We never talk about the rise of high-speed rail, because high-speed rail is already ahead of the curve, and everyone treats it as a necessity. When Guoman became an ordinary necessity, it was a rise.
Q: I've been doing a lot of screening activities lately, how do you feel?
A: We have received a lot of very high evaluations from the audience, and in my opinion, this is largely the hope and encouragement that the audience has placed on our domestic animation. We know that in fact, there are many shortcomings and flaws in the work. But the Chinese audience is really very tolerant and very much hopes that our domestic animation industry can get better, so they have given us such encouragement. I feel that the next step should be more serious and hard, and we can't live up to this expectation.
(Source: China News Network WeChat public account)