Loosely based on a 16th-century Chinese novel and rooted in Chinese folktales and mythology, the animated feature Jiang Ziya is a fantasy epic set in an ancient world of gods, immortals, demons, and other supernatural beings. The immortal warrior Jiang Ziya has been banished to Earth by the gods for failing to execute Su Daji, the nine-tailed Fox Demon who threatens the existence of the mortal realm. His inaction is due to the fact that Su Daji has taken the soul of a young girl hostage and the noble warrior will not let an innocent die.
Ten years later he runs across the girl, now a young woman named Jiu on an odyssey to find her father and learn her identity. Her fox ears mark her as a demon to the humans, who hunt and hound her, but she's also an orphan with no knowledge of her past or her identity and Jiang Ziya appoints himself her protector on an odyssey that ultimately leads them back to Su Daji and the gods themselves. This is technically a sequel to the 2019 animated feature Ne Zha, which played its story of a demon child for cartoonish humor (and became the top-grossing Chinese animated film of all time), but Jiang Ziya is a more serious production with its own self-contained story.
It leans on folk tales familiar to Chinese audiences but largely unknown in the U.S. and the details of the plot (especially when it comes to death and reincarnation) can get confusing, but it's not an impediment to enjoying the film. Lanky and stoic, Jiang Ziya is designed as a dignified and determined warrior, softened somewhat by a cute, catlike sidekick, while the diminutive Jiu has spunky, youthful energy. The Fox Demon is a magnificent, serpentine creature, deep crimson in contrast to the noble blue of Jiang Ziya's outfit, with a face hidden by a white opera mask.
The world they inhabit has a mythic grandeur and the 3D computer animation approaches the detail and richness of Pixar but informed by a Chinese sensibility and colored with a rich, deep palette that gives the world a darker, more dangerous atmosphere. And if the specific details can get confusing, the scope of the odyssey itself is easy to follow and the humanism of the story comes through clearly.
It's an impressive film in its own right and appears to be the second in a planned interconnected universe, China's answer to the MCU built out of cultural mythology of heroes, demons, and gods, which it teases with bonus scenes dropped into the end credits.
The unrated film is family-friendly, with no objectionable language and fantasy violence strictly within PG-levels. Presented with both original Mandarin language and English dub soundtracks with optional English and Chinese (Simplified) subtitles. Recommended.