As early as before the Spring Festival, Pi Ge mentioned the high expectations for "New God List: Nezha Reborn".
After all, it is one of the few films in this year's Spring Festival file that dares to be screened -
The self-confidence and boldness of the filmmakers, the high reputation of director Zhao Ji's previous work "White Snake: Origins", the "punk Nezha" in the publicity, etc., these elements make it difficult for "New God List: Nezha Reborn" not to arouse the curiosity of the audience. (Hereinafter referred to as "Nezha Reborn")
At present, the film was released for 5 days, the box office was only 200 million, ranking fifth among the 7 films in the same period, and even opened up the box office distance of 150 million by "Bear Haunting", which was determined to fall out of the competition of the top three box office in the Spring Festival.
However, although the box office lost, its reputation is still strong, Douban 7.4, second only to Jia Ling's "Hello, Li Huanying" 8.3 points, ranking second.
Today, Pigo finally went to the cinema to see this movie, and Pigo's feelings can be roughly summarized into three words: surprise, regret, and expectation.
Let's talk slowly below to explore the reasons for the failure of "Nezha Reborn".
There are minor spoilers involved, but trust me, it doesn't affect your viewing experience.
First: Surprise
For the creation of "Nezha Reborn", the biggest challenge is how to face the "inevitable spoilers", after all, the characters and stories are directly based on the classic Chinese mythology: Nezha smoked his muscles because of the festival with the third prince of the Dragon King, the old Dragon King angrily rushed to avenge his son, Nezha made trouble, this story is too familiar... It's a little hard to get a little new feeling, to be honest.
So the film made a very bold decision in terms of creation, to turn it over.
On the one hand, it is to build an unprecedented modern new world - Donghae City.
In the whole city, all resources are controlled by four major families, and the difference between rich and poor is obvious.
The rich district has advanced science and technology, and the head of the four major families, the Tokujia, controls the Dragon Ball, captures the dragon clan in the rivers, controls the supply of fresh water, and thus controls the social order of the entire Donghae City.
Civilian areas are oppressed and miserable, often fighting over a mouthful of fresh water,
The rich area is "high-tech", the civilian area is "low life", there is a chaotic three-way zone in the middle, the industrial area of the steel forest and the no-man's land full of wasteland, the sense of déjà vu of cyberpunk is about to come out, giving "Nezha Reborn" an absolute freshness.
On the other hand, it is to reset all the characters completely.
The protagonist is not Nezha, but an ordinary person named Li Yunxiang who lives in Donghai City, Nezha is his Yuan God, and he is a physical body of Nezha in infinite reincarnation.
In addition to Nezha, the city of Donghai, where the dragon and Crouching Tiger are hidden, is full of famous figures from classical Chinese mythology.
The De family is the East Sea Dragon Clan, the old man in the family is the East Sea Dragon King, and the cynical son is the third prince Ao Bing;
The villain beauty who hunts down Nezha all the way is Caiyun, the boy of Lady Shiji;
The world-weary and mysterious mask man is qi tian dasheng...
Such a character setting is not only equivalent to giving the mythological character a new identity, but also has a very obvious character growth curve for the protagonist Li Yunxiang -
From an ordinary young man with an obedient personality to a Nezha who identifies with his mission
Therefore, in the movie, Nezha Li Yunxiang rides a motorcycle throughout Donghai City, which has the meaning of the wasteland "Akira".
The city is full of red and green lights, neon flashes, the rich and civilian areas are connected by steel bridges, and people are looking for a vain spiritual life in Shanghai's Paramount-like Wanle Fang;
Between the three no-matter zones and the no-man's land, the sand and stones fly, the people are not happy, there are barren and mysterious grottoes hidden between the mountains, and the hospital built on the hanging temple in the mountains by the sea is in chaos...
The protagonist Nezha here has to face not only the classic bridge section of fighting with the three princes of the Dragon King, being avenged by the old Dragon King, and making a big fuss in the East Sea, but also the search for and identification with his own identity and strength.
This earth-shattering reshaping is an unprecedented surprise in domestic animation, and director Zhao Ji is undoubtedly the first person to eat crabs in this year's domestic films.
Second: Regrets
But after watching "Nezha Reborn", Pigo still felt some regrets.
First of all, the construction of the character could have been more plump.
Although the film's approach to laying out classic mythological characters in the alternate world is very innovative, the shaping of individual characters and the relationship between the characters are still a bit thin.
Li Yunxiang's own personality, except for a very small number of bridges used to rob the rich and help the poor and save kittens to show kindness, is almost only anger -
For example, when the arrogant Dragon King's Third Prince kills a cute cat;
For example, the masked man with an unobstructed mouth pokes his own weakness when he speaks;
For example, seeing the housekeeper of the De family brutally killing innocents...
The scene where Li Yunxiang was able to summon the Yuan God Nezha was nothing more than focused on his own anger.
This is the Nezha we are familiar with, but this is not what we want to see, Nezha who already has a modern life after 3,000 years of the Fengshen War, and is reborn and reincarnated in the human body.
Secondly, under the collection of multiple elements, it is difficult to see the style of "Nezha Reborn".
From the layout plan of Donghae City, it can be seen that the creators strive to project all the popular elements in the real world in the movie.
The rich area of cyberpunk, the civilian area of the Republic of China, the industrial area of steampunk, the no-man's land of the doomsday wasteland, the common yuan god summoning in anime, the classic configuration of male protagonist + Lolita + royal sister, the character image in popular mobile games...
There's nothing wrong with trying to win over the crowd, but if there's no trade-off, it's confusing the audience in a bunch of styles and reducing the credibility of the world built in the film.
For example, the sense of déjà vu of the opposition between the Republic of China style and the cyber style is too strong, and the suffering shown by the Republic of China style cannot support the low sense of life marginalized in the concept of cyberspace, and the cold cyber world is not compatible with the Republican charm of the city fireworks;
For example, the worldview before and after has been divided, the first part of the movie is trying to create a huge new world, and the final competition is the superpowers possessed by a few supernatural beings in the superhero routine...
Finally, the imagination may be bolder.
When he first saw the setting of the Dragon King and the Dragon Palace, Pi ge was still very surprised.
Inside the Dragon Palace are floors and stairs made of coral reefs, lamps made of luminous jellyfish; outside the Dragon Palace is a mech sniper team composed of shrimp soldiers and crabs, and a mansion like a soprano family above the abyss...
Originally, the four major families of Donghai City are easily reminiscent of the four major families of the Republic of China period, and it is more interesting for one overlord to control freshwater resources by relying on zhenhai beasts and chaotian aya, capital, monopoly, exploitation, how to see can be developed into a modern fable...
Unfortunately, such a cool idea in the film is only limited to the background, and is not used to develop character relationships or plot development, so that the intention of the film also lacks the depth of thinking to a certain extent.
Third: Look forward to it
However, let's change the perspective, from the beginning of the new fengshen series of chasing light animation to look at "Nezha Reborn", Pi Ge is still willing to admit that it is a good start.
It is somewhat like the trailer of the entire new Fengshen series, explaining to the audience that Nezha has not yet obtained all the magic weapons, the masked man who is hidden in the downtown for some reason, the Caiyun who has made a vendetta against Nezha in his past life, and Dr. Su who may not have a simple life...
In addition to the characters, the film also hints at the existence of a broader world in Donghae City, and even outside Donghae City.
In the heat of domestic animation creation in recent years, Chasing Light has fully demonstrated its advantages in art and special effects, whether in the previous work "White Snake: Origins" or this time's "Nezha Rebirth".
Although in this year's Spring Festival file, Nezha failed to make a hit for various reasons, lost the box office, but also won face for Chinese animation, Pi Ge believes that relying on excellent industrial standards and existing foundations, the follow-up light-chasing animation of the Fengshen universe has left us with great expectations.
Finally, why did Nezha lose in the Spring Festival stalls?
In summary, "Nezha Reborn" on the whole, it is not a short and fast pure commercial film, the huge world view and aesthetics it constructs, which requires the audience to precipitate time after watching the movie, in order to finally form the fermentation of word of mouth. It is precisely because of this that it chose to be released in the Spring Festival file, which is undoubtedly wrong.
In the short 7 days of the Spring Festival file, it is more suitable for movies that can quickly convey intuitive feelings to the audience, such as the visual funny elements of "Tang Detective 3", such as the most direct emotional expression of "Hello, Li Huanying", and so on.
These are exactly what "Nezha Reborn" lacks, under the same period, compared to movies such as "Tang Detective 3" and "Hello, Li Huanying", which is also an important reason why it is rejected by the audience, Pi Ge thinks that if "Nezha Reborn" does not choose the Spring Festival file, but chooses a longer summer file, it should be better...
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