Available to Stream on Amazon Prime, Google Play and Youtube and coming to Home Video on April 25th, 2023 courtesy of Shout! Factory.
It would be a shame if all the work put behind building the world presented in New Gods: Yang Jian gets limited to one movie. What’s presented as extras in the home video release gets into the finer points of why many realms exist. In the press interview with Ji Zhao, the director, he simplified the plot to be about this individual who can see the truth, but doesn’t fully understand what it all means.
The other details revealed help with how this works relates to New Gods: Nezha Reborn. Although he doesn’t say much about whether more films in this world will come, I hope it’ll one day happen.
Light Chaser Animation’s 3000 Miles of Chang’an is slated for release this Summer, and it’ll be different from their previous works.
Light Chaser Animation‘s upcoming 3000 Miles of Chang’an is a radical departure from their New Gods line of films, and it’s only a mere six or seven months away from release! In what I could dig up about this upcoming title is that the story will focus on a different aspect of Chinese History. Instead of focusing on further heroics from characters from classic folklore, what this latest tale will deal with is brotherly love, and the life and times of two famous poets.
Perhaps the switch is for the better. As much as I love to see further adventures from Ne Zha and Yang Jian from the New Gods series of films, perhaps they are meant to be sunsetted in favour for further tales to expound on a world today’s Chinese children don’t know about.
Although the tease at the end of New Gods: Yang Jian suggested Monkey will get to tell his story about those times from his persepctive, I suspect that won’t happen anytime soon.
New Gods Yang Jian not only ups the ante in what Light Chaser Animation can do with the animation medium but also update a traditional tale to the science fiction medium.
GKIDS
Playing at Select Theatres Beginning Jan 20
Coming to Digital on April 11 and Home Video April 25th, 2023.
Light Chaser Animation‘s New Gods cinematic universe has another hero, and his name is Yang Jian (voiced by Wang Kai). He’s also known as Erlang Shen, a god with a truth-seeing eye, but in this film it has even greater power which can’t be defined.
Thankfully, no prior knowledge of who he is or the prior film are needed (Nezha Reborn) is on Netflix and my review can be read here), but it’ll help explain the surprise bits found in this tale. In this second film to this franchise, titled New Gods Yang Jian, he gave up his godhood to become a mortal, a bounty hunter, and for much of the tale, he has no regrets over this decision.
Despite everything we know about how the Divine World fell apart, nobody in this new utopia is truly at peace. The introduction talks about an averted civil war, but all is not well. In Penglai, a futuristic neo-feudal tech city located upon a mountaintop, the people live in relative peace. But this home of the gods may well become a target should a boy assemble the pieces of a destructive lamp. The beauty this location represents is just one of many places this film visits. The look of Ancient China juxtaposed with the industrial age looks wonderful. When the adventure moves to the countryside, the landscapes look like they’re straight from a bamboo tapestry. The softer use of colours is not always pronounced, and that helps with giving this movie a better richness than those highly saturated works other CGI films, like Kung Fu Panda, prefer to emphasise.
It’s tough to say New Gods Yang Jian will get a theatrical debut or if it’ll go to streaming.
Light Chaser Animation has been busy and wasn’t resting during the pandemic. This studio released New Gods Yang Jian over the weekend, with terrific box office results. According to Variety, “New Gods Yang Jian earned 19.8 million (RMB134 million) on its debut between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.”
New Gods Yang Jian takes place in a different land, perhaps far away from where New Gods Nezha Reborn ends. My review can be read here. Instead of a completely historical story based on The Investiture of the Gods (Amazon USA link), this version takes place in a cyberpunk style world. The battle is not over. What Li Yunxiang (in Nezha Reborn) learns about his place in the universe is more than just a cycle of coincidences. His old enemies are hiding in newly reincarnated bodies, and the Dragon Clan is not ready to rest in peace.
White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake is a good enough tale to recommend viewing during Chinese New Year. Technically, this product wasn’t made with this celebration in mind. It’s more of a winter story because we’re dealing with depression and loss.
Not everyone will be aware Light Chaser Animation Studios‘ White Snake has a sequel. It went from Chinese theatres straight to American streaming in 2021 and that’s a shame. In Green Snake, as re-titled by Netflix, the time spent to focus on Tang Xiaoxi searching for her sister in a post-apocalyptic world would’ve looked just as fantastic on the big screen.
And for home video collectors, the wait for a physical release is long; this service doesn’t like to offer it whereas in China, it’s possible to find, and perhaps bereft of a subtitle track.
White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake is a good enough tale to recommend viewing during Chinese New Year. Technically, this product wasn’t made with this celebration in mind. It’s more of a winter story because we’re dealing with depression and loss.
GKIDS
