I am Nezha
New Gods: Nezha Reborn (Chinese: 新神榜：哪吒重生) is a 2021 Chinese 3D CG animated fantasy action film released in Mainland China on February on Netflix April 12, 2021. Produced by Light Chaser Studios who also created White Snake (2019).
Three thousand years after Nezha fought the sea, Li Yunxiang, a young motorbike rider in Donghai City, discovers that he is Nezha reincarnated. Before he has mastered his powers, his old enemies appear, and he must settle a 3,000-year-old grudge with the Dragon Clan.
Not to be confused with the film NeZha. Or the New Gods of DC Comics.
New Gods: Nezha Reborn contains examples of:
- Action Survivor: Li's love interest Manages to save herself and stay out of trouble when taken hostage by the bad guys near the end.
- Adaptational Badass: This movie treats Nezha as the strongest and baddest deity of the Chinese pantheon and, in the Masked Man's words, a "slayer of demons and gods" and portrays his sacrifice in front of Ao Guang as an act of ballsy defiance. In the original Fengshen Yanyi he only killed the Yaksha and Ao Bing on his own, took down Ao Guang with a sneak attack, was forced to run away to his master Taiyi Zhenren when attacked by Empress Shiji and the only reason why he accepted to kill himself was because Taiyi already provided him with a backup plan to reincarnate his soul in a lotus body, since fate still needed him. Even after being reborn and getting all his treasures and the multi-armed and three-faced form he's still far from being the top dog of the battlefield, often losing to more skilled immortals and being powerless without his Paopei. Also, while he did have three fire-based treasures (the spear, the wheels and his master's basket) he never had full-blown fire powers.
- To be fair, this is in part because he was more of a badass in Journey to the West, to which this movie is also adapted from. In that book he was almost equal to Sun Wukong when he was at his strongest defending Flower Fruit Mountain, and only lost when, amongst hundreds of versions of themselves combating each other, Wukong finally managed to make an extra copy who distracted the real Nezha allowing him to break his shoulder with his staff. This also explains why the Masked Man would have reason to fear him, being Monkey King's near equal.
- All for Nothing: Near the end of the second act, the Masked Man admits being Sun Wukong and recounts how he recovered the Buddhist Sutras from India... only to become completely disilluded as they did nothing to help improving mankind.
- All Myths Are True: The Masked Man clarifies to Yunxiang that the legend of Nezha is true. Subverted in a short, where Sun Wukong interrupts a storyteller about to tell the false version of the story to a crowd where Monkey King beats Erlang. There's a shot of the storyteller running off and shape-shifting into his lion-maned-macaque demon true form, implying that may have been there or else would known it was wrong better than the humans. The short closes with Yunxian confirming with Wukong that he actually got his ass handed to him, and Wukong about to tell him the real story.
- Amphibian Assault: The Yaksha's true form resembles a humanoid toad and can use his spiked tongue to fight as well as cling to pipes.
- An Arm and a Leg: Ao Guang has a metallic arm due to losing one to Nezha in the past, while Caiyun has an artificial arm with a blade, presumably for similar reasons. Also, Kasha ends up losing a leg during Ao Bing's attack and later has to wear an artificial one made by Li.
- Arc Words: "Nezha enough" for Li Yunxiang. After the Masked Man tells him he doesn't have enough of Nezha's power to win against the Big Bad. At the end of the movie, he makes sure to inform the Masked Man that he's more than "Nezha enough" to do what needs to be done.
- As You Know: At one point, Ao Guang and the Yaksha go on on a lengthy explanation about important facts that both know and remember well enough. Justified as they were informing Ao Bing, who was amnesiac of the whole thing.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Ao Bing showcases of vile he is when he callously murders a cute kitten for hissing at him. Ao Guang, long after his villainy has been established, reveals that he's using two massive magical beasts to activate the water-draining contraption, keeping their whelp hostage to make them work.
- Battle Aura: When the God's vessels manifest their powers, they often get a massive translucent avatar of colorful light hovering behind them: Li Yunxiang gets a red, fiery Nezha, Ao Bing has a pale blue humanoid warrior, Ao Guang has a blue armored warrior with draconian features and the Masked Man has a giant golden Sun Wukong.
- Battle Butler: Ao Bing's butler not only is the voice of reason and a competent manservant, but also a powerful amphibian monster who killed at least one of Nezha's previous incarnations on his own.
- Big Bad: Ao Guang, president of the De Clan who rules Donghai City and the revived Dragon King who's Nezha's Arch-Enemy.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Caiyun, the De Clan's henchwoman mercenary, has an artificial left arm ending in a massive blade.
- Casting Gag: Ao Bing's English voice actor Aleks Le, who voiced Ao Bing in another movie starring NeZha, but this time he and Nezha are embittered rivals who don't get the option to change their fate.
- Cephalothorax: Invoked with the anglerfish henchman: at first he looks like a massive armored giant with an Epic Flail for an arm... but after Li destroys his helmet we see that he has no head, only the lure, and the monster's face is located below, in the armor's "belly".
- Cute Monster Girl: Ao Guang's henchmen are all humanoid, but are really sealife-based monsters in disguise: while the male ones are monstrous or grotesque, the female ones are pretty sexy even in their monster form.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Ao Bing, after transforming himself in a giant white dragon with icy breath to kill Li.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Ao Bing likes Li's motorbike and offers a lot of money to have it. Li (if rudely) refuse and goes away. Bing has him and his men tail Li to attack him and take his bike by brute force. With murder attempt and dog-kicking moment just because.
- Enigmatic Minion: The Masked Man for Ao Guang. Supposedly. They seem to be on good terms and apparently the former did many jobs for the latter in the past, but for this time he doesn't seem to follow Ao Guang's orders to take Li's head when paid for it, though he doesn't fully help Li either.
- Giant Wall of Watery Doom: By the time he's confronted by Li Yunxiang, Ao Guang uses the Dragon Pearl to release all the kidnapped Water Dragons so that they'll submerge Dongbai City in a massive tidal wave, all to spite Nezha.
- Godhood Seeker: Halfway through, Ao Guang mentions that the Heavens above are in chaos and thus he wants to use the Dragon Pearl to ascend to a full god so he can rule the Earth properly.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The Masked Man points out that Ne Zha has to recover all his Paopei, such as the Heaven-Muddling Ribbon and the Universal Ring. By the end of the movie, Li has recovered the Ribbon, while the Masked Man walks away, remembering all the others, such as the Fire and Wind Wheels or the Dragonslaying Swords.
- An Ice Person: Ao Bing's dragon powers seems to be centered around ice and frost, like in the other NeZha movie. Possibly in a case of a pun, as "Bing" can mean "Ice" in Chinese.
- Kick the Dog: Ao Bing murdering a cute adorable kitten for hissing at him and trying to keep him from stealing Yunxian's bike.
- Kill It with Fire: When Li first activates his powers as Nezha, his flames charcoil the two monsters sent to kill him. This is also how he finally kills Ao Guang.
- Male Gaze: During Caiyun's introduction, the camera follows her hand as she recovers one of her thrown needles and cleans it on her ample bosom before putting it back into the scabbard.
- Making a Splash: Ao Guang has control over water, corals and murk. His son Ao Bing is more focused on ice instead.
- Ms. Fanservice: Almost all the female characters tend to be pretty attractive, especially the monstrous ones such as Caiyun or the servants of Ao Bing.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Barely averted: Li Yunxiang's attempt to stop Ao Guang without Nezha's help almost result in the complete destruction of Donghai City.
- One-Winged Angel:
- The Yaksha goes from ordinary fat butler with Gonk face to a massive toad man with spiked tongue and Stomach of Holding to store his giant hammer.
- Ao Bing turns himself into a giant teal-white dragon with ice breath, but this forms makes his steel spine easier to reach and allows Li to kill him faster.
- Ao Guang turns into a Lòng made mostly of seafloor muck and lightning, though he only uses this form to swallow the Dragon Pearl and topple the tower where the Water Dragons are sealed.
- Paid Harem: Implied with Ao Bing, who's often seen lounging around with some attractive ladies attending him.
- Playing with Fire: Nezha's powers mostly manifest through fire and flames erupting from Li's body. At first he has a lot of trouble controlling them and they can even burn him unless he wears a special armor designed to help him control the flames.
- Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Not Ao Bing, who's pretty much an impulsive, immature bully, but Ao Guang is suave, corteus and after the accident between his son and Li Yunxiang over the motorbike not only he gives the bike back but also personally shows up to apologize and offer some gold. Li just takes the bike and goes away, refusing any attempt to be corteous.
- Red Herring: A twofold example. It’s heavily implied that the Masked Man is Sun Wukong due to having similar supernatural abilities and a monkey-like physiology. The film’s second act has him claim to actually by the Six-Eared Macaque, an enemy of the Monkey King who was capable of mimicking his appearance and abilities. And then, at the start of the movie’s third act, he reveals that his four extra ears are illusions and he was the genuine article all along.
- Red Right Hand: Ao Guang has a mechanical arm (which hides scales), Ao Bing has metal plating emerging from his spine.
- Reincarnation: Yunxian is one of many reincarnations of Nezha since he'd killed himself.
- Sapient Eat Sapient: After Li burns the massive anglerfish man to a crisp, the Masked Man comments on its delicious smell of grilled fish and has his miniclones take it away. Later, when Ao Guang visits him, the anglerfish minion is being cooked on a spit.
- Sequel Hook:
- In the stinger, there's a teaser for a sequel where Nezha meets a new god, implied to be Yang Jian/Erlang Shen.
- There was a trailer for an upcoming White Snake (2019) sequel.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Ao Guang beats Yunxiang to near death to the point that he uses his right arm to impale and lift him up telling him to give up and that he was never Nezha, but Yunxiang uses the last of his strength to grab Ao Guang prosthetic arm tightly so that the Dragon King can’t take it out of inside him, and tells him his life is his own and Ao Guang doesn’t get to tell him who he is before burning him alive.
- The Stinger: Nezha's missing celestial items, as well as other people's being shown stored elsewhere.
- Super Hero Origin: A textbook example.
- Super-Speed: Caiyun can move so fast she leaves signature yellow afterimages behind. Even after being fatally speared by Li.
- Threatening Shark: The De Palace also has a giant aquarium in which a massive cyborg sharks swims around. Li later hijacks the shark and use it as an underwater motorbike to reach the area of the palace where the Ribbon and the Dragon Pearl are stored.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Later trailers about the mysterious masked man who helps out Li Yunxiang reveal that he's The Monkey King: Sun Wu Kong.
- Underwater Base: The innermost quarters of Ao Guang's domain, where the Water Dragons from the landmass are kept prisoner so that he can ammass energy in the Dragon Pearl.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Li asks the Masked Man to let Caiyun go. She repays the favor by kidnapping his love interest.
- Weaponized Offspring: The attack on the hospital halfway through is seemingly done with some sort of rocket-launcher vehicle... but on a closer inspection, each bomb is a living pillbug-like vermin shot from the tail of a massive lobster-like creature on a vehicle.
- You Killed My Father: Caiyun isn't working for money but because she desires to avenge Empress Shiji and her co-disciple Biyun, who were both killed by Nezha.
