Available on Digital & Home Video (Amazon USA link)
Arriving in time for the upcoming Chinese New Year 2021 is Jiang Ziya (姜子牙)! This film is reverent for any year because of its themes about renewal. Though the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its release last year, I’ve been excited for this film for a long time. It finally screened in the fall of 2020. While it’s hard to say if the filmmakers updated the post-credits scene to fit the autumn release, it certainly succeeded in keeping the story current.
Christopher Sabat‘s vocal performance is on par with Zheng Xi ’s own in the titular role, and the actresses are just as equally notable. The English voice actress (unlisted in the information I’ve obtained) for Daji is sweet, reminiscent of Zach Tyler Eisen‘s Ang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. In contrast, Morgan Garrett gives viewers a very sentai-style performance as Juiwei (Nine Tail). The purpose is no better or worse than in what viewers expect from watching an episode of Power Rangers, for example.
It’s hard to say how the original dialogue and translated version holds as I couldn’t flip between tracks currently available and having a third, namely Cantonese (which I know). Thankfully, this home release has both tracks available. The screener I saw only had the English track. I found most of the variation comes from what Ziya said when he was creating magik, and a little with his internal monologue and book-ending the tale.
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Although American studios aren’t giving Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification (姜子牙) the fanfare it needs for an Autumn 2020 release, word of mouth is barely enough to announce to the world that the sequel to Ne Zha is as colourful and visually spectacular. (2023 Update: