This week I want to talk about Jiang Ziya. Or, at least, I want to start with it. If you haven't heard of it, I'm not surprised. Its a Chinese animated movie that came out recently and thus has a somewhat limited release. That said, this is the company that put out Ne Zha, back in 2019. While Ne Zha wasn't as good as The Legend of White Snake that was released later that year, Ne Zha was a fun movie. Sometimes the tone shifts were too frenetic for me and I wished they'd drop the fart jokes for a solid scene. That said, my husband loved those and wished the film would have stopped delving into seriousness as often as it did, so it really was a matter of taste, which part you enjoyed and which part you enjoyed less.
Jiang Ziya doesn't suffer from that tone issue at all, I'm glad to say. Focusing on the story of the mythological general Jiang Ziya, the story is telling a simple tale that, as with everything ends up being a lot more complicated. To keep his place in heaven, Jiang Ziya is given the task of killing a fox demon. The demon fights back, even trapped as she is, and uses her abilities to show our titular hero that by killing her, an innocent will die as well.
Thus begins an epic battle for the truth of the situation.
I won't go further into the story, since the movie is new and spoilers are a thing. What I can say is that I quite enjoyed the story. I really liked that everything came down to one of my favorite tropes... the "from-a-certain point-of-view". The basis of this is the belief that everyone is the hero of their own story. The bad guy has his reasons, and so do the good guys, but the further you look into what these people have done, the more the issue muddies with all of the parties coming out as less than stellar morally-speaking. The animation was excessively good, unsurprising since as I said, this is the same company that did Ne Zha and I really enjoy the style. I suggest that if you haven't seen it yet, and don't mind watching movies with subtitles (or if you understand Mandarin), definitely keep an eye out for it. This is the second movie of a trilogy the company is making, so keep your eyes peeled for the third one. If you guys hear about it first, please be sure to let me know. I'll be waiting eagerly for it.
My second topic is a bit of an apology. I've been quiet on my progress with my editing on Fox's Facade because I felt like I wasn't getting enough done on it for you guys. Today, I accepted that I had significantly underestimated the amount of work this story was going to need. So, while I'd prepared to write about 50% of the novel from scratch, I hadn't realized that trying to fit the two together would really mean rewriting closer to 80% of the novel.
All that said, the story did need the change, and in the end, bringing you the best story is the name of the game.
Having said all this, I will say that the editing shouldn't be significantly delayed, but it probably will take me longer than the two weeks I have left in October to finish it. Right now, I'll probably try to work on both during Nanowrimo, editing daily after my 1,667 words are finished. Or at least, that's the plan. As always, we'll see how the plan survives contact with the enemy.
