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Ne Zha 2 is the sequel to 2019’s Ne Zha, and which wasn’t shown prior to this new release, but then it seem to catch UK cinemas on the hop, given that a lot of them don’t show enough Chinese movies at the best of times.
However, as well as looking good, if you think Captain America: Brave New World was the highest-grossing movie so far this year – since it’s taken $412m so far, despite not actually breaking even – it’s been beaten by two Chinese films in Detective Chinatown 1900 (at $495m), and this one and a staggering $2.145m!
As for the plot, that if I haven’t seen the first, I might not grasp what was going on in the sequel. While I understand ‘2’ does follow on from ‘1’, a film also has to stand on its own merits, but I was being lured by the fact that for one week, Odeon had some 3D screenings. A shame they didn’t do that for the same week when it was in the IMAX.
With all the mystical doohickery going on, I knew it was going to take me a good while to figure things out even if I had seen the first one – and I’d have to fill in the gaps from Wikipedia – but still, it boils down to a basic good-vs-evil tale, as I understood things.
For the first part of the plot, I will need to refer to Wikipedia wholesale, since when the film started, the 3D lens hadn’t been applied to the film, so I couldn’t see what was going on at all. I blame that on the fact they were alternative 2D and 3D screenings across the day, so hadn’t thought to program it in, properly. Hence, I had to go out to the guy at the front, and while it was fixed a few minutes later, I had missed about 12 minutes of this. Thankfully, in that respect, it’s a long film.
For reasons best known to themselves, both Ne Zha (who’s a reincarnation of the Demon Orb) and Ao Bing (a reincarnation of the Spirit Pearl) are struck by lightning, their physical bodies are destroyed, but after being regenerated, this leads to the latter’s Dad enlisting Shen Gongbao to attack the Chentang Pass, unleashing Abyss monsters and god knows what else. Ao Bing then tries to defend the Chentang Pass, but his new body disintegrates because… effort.
As a result, he has to travel WITHIN Ne Zha’s body as they head off to get the elixir to sort everything out. They have 7 days to do this, which will involve going through 3 trials, after the trip over there, the journey for which is done with Ne Zha sat with the Master Immortal on his flying pig. Yes, exactly.
The three trials find him first going to Bandits Hill, and up against what look like hamsters, but are actually marmot demons; then to Ascension Falls for another big fight scene, and finally, the third trial at Skull Mountain.
Overall, Ne Zha 2 is very wordy, so takes a lot of paying attention to everyhting being said… well, as much as possible – and it does drag a bit at times, but the last hour is action-packed.
The 3D was also worth waiting for, so I’m glad I saw it in that format for the first time, but while I could really do with seeing this a second time to get more of a handle on it, it then disappeared from Odeon altogether. Bah! If they’d shown it in 3D from the first week, it would’ve been a lot busier. I saw it on a Tuesday lunchtime and had the room to myself! Meanwhile, when it was released, the seat maps showed that the place was rammed!
NOTE: There is also a mid-credits scene. See the video below.
Ne Zha 2 is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 144 minutes
Release date: March 21st 2025
Studio: Trinity CineAsia
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Rating: 7/10
Director: Yu Yang
Producer: Wenzhang Liu
Writer: Yu Yang
Novel: Xixing Lu, Zhonglin Xu (“Investiture of the Gods”)
Music: Roc Chen, Wan Pin Chu, Rui Yang
Cast:
Ne Zha: Yanting Lü
Ao Bing: Mo Han
Li Jing: Hao Chen
Octopus Monster: Gong Geer
Muzha/Aoshun: Yuze Han
Teenager Ne Zha: Joseph
Lady Yin: Qi Lü
Wuliang Xianwong: Deshun Wang
Hetong: Xinglinr
Sheng Gongbao: Wei Yang
Rat Boss: Yu Yang
Taiyi Zhenren (Taiyi Immortal): Jiaming Zhang
Lutong: Yunqi Zhang
Ao Run: Yongxi Zhou
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.