We're also thrilled to bring you this week, Ne Zha 2, the animated Chinese film that is taking the world by storm. Indeed, it is now the highest grossing animated film of all time (passing Pixar's Inside Out 2) and the highest grossing non-English language film of all time, making $2.2 billion internationally even before its arrival today in the U.S. But as Jenny Zhang noted in Slate this week, "One of the biggest movies in the world is soon coming to American theaters—and chances are you've never heard of it." She further notes that A24 (the distributor behind such films as Everything Everywhere All at Once, Lady Bird, Midsommar, The Zone of Interest, Moonlight, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Past Lives, The Brutalist, and Friendship) is set to change that, taking on this U.S. theatrical release of Ne Zha 2 and introducing it to American audiences with English language dubbing.

As you might guess from the title, Ne Zha 2 is the sequel to Ne Zha, which was released in 2019 to a rapturous reception in China and a more modest reception in North America. The story--about Ne Zha, a boy born to human parents but made from the essence of the "Demon Orb"--is largely based on Chinese mythology and the 16th-century novel Investiture of the Gods, and it might be helpful to watch Ne Zha, the original film, first (it's currently streaming on several platforms) to catch up with the complexity of the plot. But homework is not necessarily required: it's the truly stunning animation and action of this film that will leave audiences slack-jawed with delight. I'll let two critics further explain: 

UK critic John Nugent for Empire, writes,  "The sheer size of the endeavour is quite something to witness. (The animation studio, Chengdu Coco Cartoon, reportedly hired over 4,000 workers to produce it.) There are more epic battles and acrobatic superpowered skirmishes than you could possibly count, playing out almost like extremely high-level Dungeons & Dragons combat, mind-boggling spells going up against seemingly limitless celestial weaponry. At one point Ne Zha beats up an entire mountain. Another fight takes place entirely on bamboo suspended over water — the kind of wire-work a live-action filmmaker like Zhang Yimou could only dream of. The grand climactic showdown, meanwhile, sees dragons, demons and gods alike go to war alongside vast, churning clouds of millions-strong levitating armies, atop a giant city-sized cauldron."

Elizabeth Kerr for Screen Daily, writes, "Ne Zha 2 teems with imagination – the underwater world is particularly vivid – and stays faithful to its fantastical, and very Chinese, source material. Jiaozi's script is its strength; assured in its identity but universal in its concepts. Though the bonds of family, parental sacrifice and unconditional love buoy the film overall, it also delicately trades in themes of duality as personified in Ao Bing and Ne Zha: of nature versus nurture, destiny versus choice, and the timely (and quietly subversive) notion of rebellion versus capitulation to corrupt power. The dense story is wrapped in impeccable artwork that has a vibrancy surpassing [the original film] Ne Zha's scrappier aesthetic, and demonstrates China's increasing confidence in its homegrown artists and technicians."

It's truly a film made for the big screen, for fans of animation and of East Asian cinema, and with a PG-13 rating, it's appropriate for families with older children. (If you're a parent with children, you might check out the Common Sense review here.) 

 Join us for this unique spectacle!