Le prince Nezha triomphe du roi dragon

My family (wife, young boy and girl) saw this on BBC TV one Christmas, (maybe 1990? - they'd have been 6 and 5 then) and videoed it. It has since become a staunch family favourite. Graphically superb and totally psychedelic, it is also one of the most spiritually moving and profound things I have ever seen. Good versus evil, in the form of a child with spirit guides, versus nasty dragons. Some of the lines are fantastic, too: "Now we can grow even more wicked - let's create some new diseases" - (just like they do at Porton Down in Wiltshire.

But that raises an interesting point - I've only ever seen it on sale with a Mandarin sound track, and English sub-titles - but the broadcast version was in English with no sub-titles. Anyone know anything about that? An absolute must-see for anyone with any sort of taste at all.

Like I said (again), animation is an art form, and I saw that in a few countries in the world, there is some excellent animation. After watching online the 2004 Chinese animated film The Butterfly Lovers, though it was originally made in Taiwan on December 31, 2003, I had gotten curious about Chinese animation. So on YouTube and on another video site, I watched the dubbed version and the original version of the film Nezha Conquers the Dragon King, and I loved both versions. And like I said, the world has lots of wonderful stories to love and to share with other people, and the character of Nezha has frequently appeared in Chinese mythology and ancient Chinese literature, and this animated film tells the story of one of these Chinese legends.

The story begins with Li Jing, a military leader of the Chentangguan Pass, who is informed that after a three and a half-year pregnancy, his wife has given birth to something that looks like a cross between an egg and a lotus flower. Before Li could strike the egg or flower with his sword (as he considered it to be something unnatural), the bud opened and revealed a small boy. Not long after, a sage named Taiyi Zhenren comes to express his congratulations. He names the boy "Nezha," gives him the Firmament Ring and the Armillary Damask Silk, and accepts Nezha as his disciple.

When Nezha is seven years old, the Chentangguan Pass is afflicted with a severe drought, and Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, turns a blind eye to the offerings he receives from the people that are suffering from the drought. And worse, he orders Li Gen, his Yaksha guard (an evil ogre-like spirit in Buddhist religion), to hunt and kidnap the town's children so he can eat them. Li Gen managed to kidnap one of the children, who were Nezha's two friends, who were riding Nezha's deer friend along the beach. Of course, Nezha defeats the Yaksha, and in a rage over Nezha's defiance to his authority, the Dragon King sends his third (and probably favorite) son, Prince Ao Bing, to capture and kill Nezha. I won't give you any more details; you'll have to see the film for yourself.

So overall, this is one of the best animated movies ever made. With plenty of fantasy, adventure, humor, shocking surprises, and beautiful animation, I loved it!

Here is a link to the you tube that contains this movie, the English version, it also contains the Mandarin version without subs (but original score). I used to watch this as a child too, when I was 5 or 6 (1995/6) but lost my copy.

It's a long forgotten gem, the plot (i think is an old Chinese fable) and the music score is fantastic. I don't think it is still produced for the UK market, however, I did hear of a 25th anniversary edition DVD being released in China.

Hope that helps a little.

Laurence

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Kty_rVj1Va8&mode=related&search=

Like many of the reviewers I thoroughly enjoy this odd Chinese animation. It is well animated and the sound track is particularly enjoyable. I watched this animation numerous times throughout my childhood without recoiling at any of the 'shocking' scenes nor considering it particularly 'disturbing'. That being said, I remember when I first went to University I showed the animation to a few friends and they found the animation to be very disturbing for an animation that children would have watched.

Given this, I would recommend any parent watches Nezha before allowing their kids to watch it. If you were okay with uncensored Dragonball and other Japanese animes then Nezha should be no problem.

I would thoroughly recommend it though - very enjoyable film, and highly memorable.

The 25th Anniversary DVD of "Nezha Nao Hai" (Nezha Conquers the Dragon King) is REALLY a well-remastered DVD with (Chinese &) English subtitles! It totally wipes the floor with Disney's Mulan (just my personal fanatical opinion) in terms of Chinese fantasy art and, of course, kung-fu, animation.

In my opinion, this is REAL Peak Achievement of traditional Chinese animation because Shanghai Animation Film Studio built on the achievements of Uproar in Heaven (Da Hao Tian Gong, 1965) and threw in every visual and musical trick available to the studio in 1979.

And the English subtitles are quite well done, except in places where the translation is a bit too literal (i.e. doesn't flow in modern English). Of course, the English subs simplify the story in the sense that some nuances of the Chinese dialogue doesn't come through-- e.g when the red, black and white Dragon King greets the blue/green Dragon King as "Sire", the point that the blue/green Dragon King is the eldest brother is lost in translation.

But then the story is already simplified from the book (and Nezha's mother & 2 elder brothers never appear), so the film is only around 1 hour and is easy enough to follow without subs. But be warned! Unlike Uproar in Heaven which a happy ending to fit a film format (the Monkey King's adventures actually goes on for another 90 chapters or so), all the cruel elements of Nezha's story has been retained....