Last night I pre-watched Nezha to see if it would be appropriate for the Earthquakes Family movie night. Because I am exiiiiited about it!!!!

Do you know how many kids books and movies I’ve been able to find about Nezha in English? ZERO. I can’t even find any books about his fight with Monkey King – who crossed over into western culture decades ago.

So in terms of whether it’s usable for our 5 & 7 year old – NOPE IT IS TOTALLY NOT.

The overall arc of the message was okay – focus on sacrifice of oneself for the family (that’s very Asian, and might rub Americans the wrong way, but that’s our thing). And there was some counter-culture in resisting the daoist philosophies that tell us to stay in our place and accept our destiny.

I’m actually kind of relieved the way they normalized stuttering and craniofacial differences, too.

But in addition from the gratuitous glorification of violence (we can take kung fu movies, but it was more the immediate go-to of violence in any and all situations) – it was so filled with fatphobic body shaming we’d have to brush up HARD on the spectrum of disrespect against fat folks before we approach this movie.

So this is going to have to wait a few years.

Rebecca B.:

I started watching this and was frustrated by the things you mentioned, but I had no previous knowledge of its significance. Time to do some research!

Ashia R.:

There’s a scene in the Monkey King (Sun Wukong) stories where Nezha fights against Monkey.

I was never able to follow the story except through illustrations since all the books we had were written in Chinese (which I couldn’t read), and the movie Havoc in Heaven.

Nezha (and Monkey) are … I dunno the word, part religious, part folk trickster characters (like the Easter Bunny/ Santa), but unlike Monkey, until now Nezha hasn’t made it to English speaking stories yet.

Both characters have ties to Asian faiths, Chinese folk religions, with roots in Hindu cosmology – for Monkey it’s primarily Buddhism, for Nezha, his story is rooted in Hinduism.

Rebecca B.:

Thank you for sharing what you do know! I know I don’t know much about Buddhism or Hinduism. More reading for me 😀

More on Nezha on wikipedia

Source of image Nezha facing off against Monkey in the 1960’s classic we grew up with – ‘Havoc in Heaven’ – Chinese Animation: A History and Filmography‘ (affiliate link)