The production team of "Nezha: Demon Child Conquers the Sea" or "Ne Zha 2", a Chinese animated fantasy and the current box-office revenue leader during the 2025 Spring Festival holiday, has gone above and beyond to deliver groundbreaking visual effects that captivate audiences.
The week-long Spring Festival holiday, running from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4 in 2025, is traditionally China's most lucrative moviegoing window. This year, a stellar lineup has been presented to audiences, including "Ne Zha 2", the detective thriller "Detective Chinatown 1900", and the fantasy film "Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force".
The animated feature "Ne Zha 2", the sequel to the 2019 animated blockbuster "Ne Zha", draws inspiration from the tale of a mythological figure of the same name from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel "Fengshen Yanyi", or "The Investiture of the Gods".
The first "Ne Zha" generated an impressive 5 billion yuan (about 695 million U.S. dollars) at the box office, while also winning numerous accolades.
This year, the second installment surpassed 3.3 billion yuan (about 458 million U.S. dollars) in just six days.
Continuing the story from the first film, "Ne Zha 2" delves into the reconstructing of the bodies of Ne Zha and Ao Bing, the son of the Dragon King.
The visual effects have been notably enhanced, offering an even more immersive experience than before.
"The total number of shots with special visual effects in Ne Zha 2 exceeds the entire shot count of the first movie. With a total of 34 major scenes, the movie delivers a small climax as early as the seventh scene," said Chen Changjiang, executive producer of Ne Zha 2.
This pivotal moment centers on the overwhelming presence of a massive horde of mythical sea creatures. The chains binding all these monsters play a crucial role in this scene. However, if the production team aims to create the effect of all the monsters being connected by chains, it would likely not only disrupt the composition of the shot, but also place enormous pressure on the special effects team, potentially causing production delays.
At one point, the production team and director found themselves at odds.
"Those chains were non-negotiable for me, as they were essential to the plot's core logic. Each monster in the vast army had to be bound by a chain. Our effects team had never faced such a task, so it required a lot of trial and error. It was a research and development process," said director Yang Yu, who goes by the nickname Jiaozi.
In response, the entire team worked tirelessly, refining their approach to meet the director's requirements.
"We invested a significant amount of time in developing these complex effects. Our goal was to create something that audiences had never seen before, something that would deliver a strong visual impact and offer a fresh artistic expression. This is the kind of work we believe is truly worth doing," Yang added.
"Ne Zha 2" sets box office ablaze with dazzling visual effects
The Yangtze River has seen sustained restoration of aquatic biodiversity since the implementation of a fishing ban, with concrete policies and measures leading to phased achievements, according to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
China started to implement the fishing ban in the Yangtze River Basin in 2021 to accelerate the ecological restoration of its aquatic biodiversity and water environment.
Over the past four years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has been actively rescued flagship species in the Yangtze River, including Chinese sturgeon, Yangtze finless porpoise and Yangtze sturgeon, leading to the continuous recovery of aquatic biodiversity.
"Monitoring data showed that, from 2021 to 2024, a total of 344 native fish species were recorded in the Yangtze River basin -- 36 more species than during the pre-fishing ban period from 2017 to 2020. The aquatic biological integrity index in key water areas of the Yangtze River has shown significant improvement," said Yi Yanrong, deputy director of the Yangtze River Basin Fishery Supervision and Management Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Meanwhile, the resettlement and support policies for fishermen who have retired from fishing have been effectively implemented.
A total of 145,000 the retired fishermen with the ability and willingness to work have been reemployed, while 220,000 eligible retired fishermen have been enrolled in basic pension insurance, with 12,000 fishermen facing livelihood difficulties included in the subsistence allowance system.
Over the past four years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation, has strictly cracked down on illegal fishing, maintaining overall stability in fishing ban management.
The latest data showed that in 2024, the number of administrative cases related to fishing dropped by 24.7 percent year on year, and in the first quarter of 2025, it decreased by 3.3 percent year on year. The law enforcement and management of relevant authorities have maintained a strong deterrent and high pressure on such cases, effectively curbing general illegal and non-compliant activities.
However, as fishery resources gradually recover, the lure of illegal fishing profits has increased. Criminal gang activities have started to rise, and the underground industry chain of "catching, transporting and selling" has become more concealed.
"We will work together with the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation to focus on investigating and cracking down on organized, large-scale and chain-like illegal criminal groups, resolutely cutting off the underground industry chain of illegal catching, transporting and selling [of Yangtze River fish]. We will strengthen law enforcement capacity building, actively promote reward-based reporting systems, improve public participation in crime prevention and control, standardize the management of angling activities by combining regulation and guidance, and carry out the cleanup and rectification of prohibited fishing gear, further eliminate risks and hidden dangers in the fishing industry," said Yi.
Yangtze River sees continuous aquatic biodiversity recovery since fishing ban
