An online movie called "Nezha · The Return of the Demon Boy" sparked discussion among the audience. This work, starring He Zhonghua, Chen Yijiao and Shang Na, is not only controversial in casting, but also questioned the quality of production. The box office performance of the film was not good, and the box office on the first day was only about 530,000 yuan.
"Nezha · The Return of the Demon Boy" is an online movie with the Chinese mythological character Nezha as the protagonist. This film is far from the image and story of Nezha that the audience is familiar with, and it has little to do with the 2019 hit animated film "Nezha: The Demon Boy Descends to the World".
The main cast of the film includes He Zhonghua, Chen Yijiao, and Shang Na. He Zhonghua is a 55-year-old veteran actor who has starred in classic works such as "Young Bao Qingtian" and "Bao Qingtian's Blue Blood Pill Heart". In this movie, he plays Nezha's father Li Jing.
Chen Yixi is a 12-year-old actor, although he is young, he has already participated in many big productions such as "Miracle · Stupid Child" and "Super Time and Space Big Player". In this film, she plays the role of Nezha. Shang Na is a 27-year-old new online movie actress who plays Li Jing's wife in the film.
The storyline of the film is relatively simple. The opening scene is Nezha's skinning and cramping of the third prince of the Dragon King, causing the Dragon King of the Four Seas to come to ask for an explanation. Li Jing had to clash with Nezha in order to protect the people of Chentangguan. Nezha committed suicide in a fit of rage, but because he was the reincarnation of the spirit bead, he did not really die. The lantern Taoist gave Li Jing a delicate pagoda and sealed the last trace of Nezha's soul in it. There are seven layers of fierce realms in the pagoda, and as long as Nezha breaks through these seven layers, he can be reborn.
In order to help his son, Li Jing took the initiative to enter the pagoda and break through with Nezha. The main content of the whole movie is the process of the father and son breaking through the pagoda. The setting of these seven levels makes the audience feel speechless.
The first level is a giant spider, clearly mimicking the style of a Hollywood monster movie. In the second level, Miyamoto Musashi, a Japan samurai character, appears, and the shadow of Kung Fu Panda, the use of these elements is considered naked plagiarism.
The most uncomfortable is the third level, the so-called "lust" level. The pagoda actually arranged a character pretending to be Li Jing's wife to tempt Li Jing, which was not only unreasonable, but also very vulgar. This scene seems to be more to show the figure of the heroine Shanna, full of various edge-rubbing shots. For 55-year-old He Zhonghua, it seems a little inappropriate to play this kind of role.
The special effects production of the film has also been criticized. The scene in the opening scene where the third prince of Long is pierced through the heart by ten thousand guns looks very cheap. The dragon king used an enlarged version of the fox model when he appeared, and the colors were colorful, giving the impression that the production team had cut corners.
What's even more speechless is that in the scene where Nezha committed suicide, the knife was just smeared with something similar to ketchup, and the actor didn't even have any makeup on his neck without any wounds. The same problem also appears in the scene where Li Jing holds the blade of Nezha's gun, and the actor's palm is intact, and the negligence of these details greatly reduces the audience's sense of substitution.
The film's box office performance was also very dismal. According to statistics, the box office on the first day was only more than 530,000 yuan, and the final box office is expected to be about 5 million yuan. This result is not outstanding even in online movies.
The audience generally did not have a high evaluation of the movie. Many people believe that the film has obvious problems in terms of casting, plot setting, and special effects production. Some people question why a veteran actor like He Zhonghua should take on such a low-quality work, and some people express doubts about Chen Yijiao, who is only 12 years old, playing the role of Nezha.
Some unreasonable settings in the movie also caused the audience to complain. Nezha, as a child, was able to easily defeat the Dragon King of the Four Seas, which is far from the image in traditional mythology. The design of the seven levels in the pagoda is also considered to be uncreative and even suspected of plagiarism.
The online movie "Nezha · The Return of the Demon Boy" is shoddy in many aspects. From casting to plot setting, from special effects production to overall quality, the audience could not be satisfied. This also reflects the unprofessionalism and carelessness of some online movie production teams at present. Audiences want to see more quality work, not this kind of film that ignores quality for the sake of quick production.