Directed by Zhao Ji and voiced by Yang Tianxiang, Zhang He, Xuan Xiaoming and others, the animated film "New God List: Nezha Reborn" was released in China on February 12, 2021. It tells the story of Li Yunxiang, a hot-blooded young man who was reborn as a locomotive lover in Donghai City three thousand years after his death, but he could not escape his fate and the gods fought side by side.
Poster of "New Gods: Nezha Reborn".
This is another masterpiece of the light-chasing animation and the beginning of the new Fengshen series. After four years of grinding a sword, "New God List: Nezha Reborn" presents fans with an alternative style of national comics. Deconstructing familiar characters, blending punk aesthetics, and experimenting with unexpected settings makes people feel addicted. However, in the competition of "the strongest Spring Festival file in history", "New God List: Nezha Reborn" also encountered the problem of fewer films and low box office. Director Zhao Ji also said on Weibo, broke my heart for Nezha's rebirth.
Zhao Ji, director of "New God List: Nezha Reborn"
Recently, Zhao Ji, the director of "New God List: Nezha Reborn", was interviewed by Southern Metropolis Daily, telling his story with Nezha, with the new god list, and with guoman.
Create a new image of Nezha:
"Every generation has in their hearts the Nezha of their generation"
"New God List: Nezha Reborn" has created a modern version of Nezha.
Southern Metropolis Daily: "New God List: Nezha Reborn" is the first work of the new Fengshen series, why did you choose the character of Nezha as the first protagonist?
Zhao Ji: Creation first of all stems from the original heart, from love, we have a deep affection for such a classic role, Nezha is not only a household name, but also from "Nezha Noisy Sea" to "Nezha Legend", we found that every generation of Chinese has Nezha belonging to their generation in their minds. When we have the opportunity to use the modern context and the perspective of the current youth to tell a mythical hero story that belongs to china, the first thing that comes to mind is Nezha. In 2016, when I said that I wanted to be a modern version of Nezha, the whole team was particularly excited, because we had a lot of expectations for the possibilities brought to us by this worldview, and no one knew what it would be like to make a Chinese mythological hero story in a modern context.
Nandu: The scenes in "New God List: Nezha Reborn" have a clear steampunk style, which is actually relatively rare in our national comic works, what was the purpose of this design at that time?
Zhao Ji: Nezha is the most punk Chinese mythological hero in my mind, he is rebellious, has a personality, does not accept defeat, does not admit his fate, we want to show these characteristics of his in the "New God List: Nezha Reborn", and punk is undoubtedly very appropriate. At first, many people were questioning, why are you doing this? There is no punk in China, what do you do with punk in China? It is true that china does not have the word punk, but China has never lacked punk behavior and the spirit of punk, punk is not only stuck in a word and a picture, it also stays at the level of spirit and behavior. With this understanding, we try to present the style we want to everyone.
Nandu: The musical sound coverage of the animated film is very large, what are the characteristics of the design of the sound language in this movie compared with other works of the previous light-chasing animation?
Zhao Ji: "New God List: Nezha Reborn" has made some bold attempts in music, first because this story takes place in the modern and contemporary style of the alternate world, and as a whole, it is partial to the musical tone of the Republic of China period. Secondly, our Nezha and punk visual styles both have their own very hot and bloody attributes, so we hope to integrate the elements of rock metal into it. The third is to make a Chinese feeling and integrate into traditional Chinese musical instruments. In the end, after many attempts by our composition teacher, we made this music that satisfies the tone of the film without making people feel abrupt.
Nandu: The work of "New God List: Nezha Reborn", many people say that the special effects are very good. What was the hardest part of your creative process?
Zhao Ji: We are actually in the early stages of doing it simultaneously with "White Snake: Origins", but because the technical difficulty of this film will be much more difficult than "White Snake: Origins", its difficulty is not only the difficulty of a certain shot or an overall style, the most difficult is how to create a world that makes the audience feel credible, and a new Nezha that retains the characteristics of Nezha and is different from the past. No one has ever done anything about a fairy living until now, and when I do this thing, I will repeatedly discuss and verify what kind of world it should be. At this point, it took us a lot of time to try it over and over again, and even did some practical tests and experiments to see if such a style presentation was acceptable to the audience, whether it felt credible, and had a sense of substitution. The story takes place in Donghae City, 3,000 years after the Battle of fengshen, a modern elevated city with an oriental punk style, from which you can see the collision of East and West, the collision of tradition and modernity, and the collision of aesthetics and hardcore. And our little Nezha grew up and became a dragging motorcycle youth, when the Nezha Yuan God in his body unexpectedly awakened, he also faced many challenges from the enemies of the past life.
Nandu: "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending" was a fire in 2019, so "New God List: Nezha Reborn" will inevitably be compared with it by the audience, so did its release have any impact on your work at that time? Will you worry that the audience will feel that Nezha is over-consumed?
Zhao Ji: When "The Magic Boy" was released, I was particularly happy for them, Chinese animation is a very small circle, and everyone encourages each other. But gradually, my own pressure is getting bigger and bigger, because many people have come to ask, do your Nezha continue to do it? Can you surpass them at the box office? We call that almost two months the "Magic Boy Pain Period." Later, I figured it out myself, in fact, we are doing two completely different things, I believe that now the audience has also seen it. Then, I don't think Nezha is over-consumed, China can have thousands of Stories of Sun Wukong, and of course, it can accommodate more stories of Nezha. You look at Hollywood, Spider-Man, Batman have made many versions, and not many people have jumped out and said that they are over-consuming. I hope that this new Nezha can find his audience, which is my initial intention.
Create a new series of gods:
Every movie ticket given to Nezha is a brick and a tile
Stills from "New Gods: Nezha Reborn".
Nandu: Why did you want to create the "New Fengshen" series?
Zhao Ji: I myself have always had a regret, that is, we have watched so many Hollywood superhero movies, but in our own traditional Chinese culture, there are actually those superhero mythological characters, but few people dig deep and innovate. Our Chinese mythological system is very large, there are 365 gods and immortals on the list of gods alone, which is already very complicated, and the cultural reserves of this volume are enough to form a series, so when we do this topic, it is easy to think about whether we can expand this thing.
Nandu: The next project in the new Fengshen series is "New God List: Yang Jian", will this work have any connection with Nezha's work?
Zhao Ji: Nezha and Yang Jian are both the strongest fighting forces in "Fengshen Yanyi". But in the world view of the new Fengshen series, there is an essential difference between the two, that is, Nezha was reborn after death, this life is Li Yunxiang, and Yang Jian has been living until now, so what will happen to him in these three thousand years? And why did you come to Donghai City to find Li Yunxiang? You might as well look forward to it.
Nandu: The New Fengshen series is also considered to be building a "New Fengshen Universe", how will this series construct a complete worldview of Chinese mythological hero stories? This should require a huge investment, right?
Zhao Ji: Because "New God List: Nezha Rebirth" is about three thousand years later, when building this world view, you will wonder why it has become like this. In fact, we have put together a chronology of what changes have been experienced in the entire three thousand years, and what will happen in the entire overhead timeline, "New God List: Nezha Rebirth" is only the first part of the series, we have an overall plan, and subsequent projects like "New God List: Yang Jian" have more than one in the development process. Rome was not built in a day, the new god series is not all made at once, we will slowly expand the territory of this new world, so that more Chinese mythological heroes appear. The current model of chasing light is to invest the proceeds of the previous projects into the subsequent projects, and the original "New God List: Nezha Rebirth" has also been in the early stage, until "White Snake: Origins" has been released and earned some money, we dare to boldly say to the boss that we need people to do the new Nezha. And now, every movie ticket that everyone gives to Nezha will become the driving force for us to do Yang Jian, and become a brick and tile of "New God List: Yang Jian".
Innovation is certainly risky:
"The national comic industry is still in its infancy, and everyone's feedback has been seen"
"New God List: Nezha Reborn" was criticized for having a thin plot.
Nandu: In recent years, more and more chinese comic works have emerged, but many of them have received the evaluation of "great special effects and average plot". "New God List: Nezha Reborn" also has viewers who put forward that the plot is a little thin, and the characters are more facial, how do you see this evaluation?
Zhao Ji: The visual style of this movie is very expensive in CG technology, so we made a lot of trade-offs, now the main part is 109 minutes, and we have done a version of about 125 minutes before, but because we are calculating money by frame, 24 frames per second, each frame is money, so we have made a lot of trade-offs later. In addition, this is indeed the first part of the new Fengshen series, and I hope to lay more clues related to the story behind it, without specific development.
Nandu: The animation works that chase the light have taken a long time to polish, such as this "New God List: Nezha Reborn" lasted four years, which means that the investment is very large. And you also mentioned that the box office of 300 million yuan is far from enough for the film to return the cost. Do you think it's worth taking such a risk because of innovation? Will the box office of this film affect the development and production of the successor projects of the new Fengshen series?
Zhao Ji: I hope that every work can let everyone see surprises, see some things that have not been seen or expected, and we also know that innovation is definitely risky, but if no one takes risks, the entire national comic industry may not be able to progress. We have also seen everyone's feedback and opinions, which will bring more surprises to everyone in the future projects.
Nandu: Seeing your Weibo mention that your little nephew was very happy after watching "New God List: Nezha Reborn", you are also very happy, because you think this generation of children has China's own animation movies to watch. What stage do you think Chinese animation films have reached? What should be the way forward?
Zhao Ji: Guoman is still in its infancy, and Chinese animators themselves need to continue to work hard, but they also hope that the outside world can provide better soil. When we were young, we called animation cartoons, that is, "The Legend of Nezha" and "Black Cat Sheriff" watched on TV, which naturally gave us the feeling that it was for children to watch, which was called "cartoon" in English. But animated films are feature-length films made with animation techniques. Animation is just a form of expression that can be used to shoot family fun, but also to shoot other genres. In fact, two years ago, there was an animated film in China called "Big World", which was a crime theme. I hope that people will be more and more accepting that animated movies can also be for adult audiences.
Special feature writing: Nandu reporter Xu Xiaolei intern Huang Shiyun