Twelve bi-pedal cats, two four-fingered kings and one battle-bot going against their programming

A nearly Marvel Cinematic Universe casting for a Nine Sols animated feature

Introduction: Capcom, you [INSERT INSULT HERE]!

The Chinese-speaking gamers’ circle has always had a complicated relationship with Osaka based dev Capcom. It had been among the circle’s favorite developers for the 3 decades said circle existed and good reasons. Yet, the developer had been called a, er, “sex worker” by said circle for the way too frequent ports of its hit titles since Street Fighters 2. For a rather unlucky studio known as Red Candle Games, Capcom had been quite a thorn on their side that they earned the right to call Capcom much meaner names.

As one can see for themselves, Red Candle’s debut title had the misfortune of releasing in early, 2017 near the franchise refreshing Resident Evil: Biohazard. The Chinese-speaking developers had a rude awakening regarding that if a video on their Youtube channel is to be believed. Then Red Candle’s third rather overlooked by many 2024 title can practically serve as the Megaman to Pragmata’s Legend.

Both more or less open with the player character taking a big fall, then some kid woke them up. The combat in both requires mastering the games’ ways of waging electronic warfare. The tear-jerking endings of both are also uncanny to each other. Not to mention, in Pragamta, one of the interactions between Hugh Willam in a white astronaut suit and Diana the android involves the latter asking the former to pretend to be a cat then the former declined with “Maybe, some other time”. Coincident? I think not!

I, as a Chinese speaking fan of science fiction, cannot say enough nice things about Nine Sols. The game’s complicated rogue galley, commitment to a dreadful dramatic tone (Not without levity though.) and fascinating alien world all hit for me. The game managed to be cinematic with brief animated cut scene without going to the “Do please STFU!” zone where Hideo Kojima resides. The sauce is just right. It is, at least to me, one of the best adventure stories out there.

To many, the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe has the best adventure story. Me? Well, I think the mega franchise misses way more than it hits. But when it hits it can hit pretty hard. So here is the thought experiment, if a relatively humble title like Nine Sols were to be made into an animated feature or series, would any MCU cast member be cast in the English dub? Now, I said this is a pure flight of fancy and there will be wild casting below, but the Doomdays cast are mostly out. I will lead with the more hard-edged lead here.

1 For those DO come after

Charlie Cox as Yi

(Mr. Cox is MCU’s Daredevil, Matt Murdock. Good gag still going for him.)

…Stories. Of crime and chilling thrillers. Of hard-boiled killers. Became best-sellers!

-----Herald of Darkness, the Old Gods of Asgard

In contrast to Nine Sols, Clair Obscure Expedition 33 is a game I would never play yet could not stop dissing either. I dreaded for a smash hit like that since the tail end of 2024 already, given the trauma yet to be cause by the action of a certain piece of shit. Then the game turned out to go against all these warnings one editor gave out to novelists, so it’s “the Last of Us, never again!” for me. Not to mention so-called UE slop looks ugly as sin on the Deck. All in all, I wish Charlie Cox had been in some better video game for how well an action lead he is as MCU’s Daredevil.

The Netflix show opened up a rather refreshingly dark and gritty corner for the franchise as it headed into that toy commercial rut in 2015. Daredevil is the show’s Superman like goody two-shoe archetype yet the show tone demanded that his harder edge. Murdock being a self-doubting Catholic can be mapped on Yi’s guilty driven Taoism pursuit. Not to mention how Yi always covers up his fang filled mouth like Murdock usually cover up his blind eyes.

Nine Sols, despite its furry appeal, certainly keep its hard-edged thriller starring a killer vibe much better than, oh shall I say, the extremely overrated Metal Gear Solid franchise. For one thing, Red Candle never went as low as using toilet humor as levity. Yi was first shown with blood on his face over a pool of liquid that is likely blood. Red Candle still put up their usual “Not for the faint of heart” content warning and the opening cut scene establishes a gnarly tone among other things. The player character had lost at least one fifth of his head there after all.

2 Nicety through distance

Scott Glenn as Lear

(Mr. Glenn played Daredevil’s tutor, Stick in the MCU.)

While most of the characters in Nine Sols are cut little fur balls, it is clear that those are all cats or at least feline. Nothing is more revealing than this character Lear having facial features resembling a lion without mare.

Lear is a ghost in the game. He had past centuries before the story began, but as Yi taps back into some Eltrich root to learn the game’s Metroidvania movement suite, this big old cat is always there to talk about why he thinks “inaction” is the best cause of action. He’s quite like Glenn’s mostly unnamed role in “Zack Snyder’s” Sucker Punch as opposed to MCU’s foul-mouthed Stick. Given the way Mr. Glenn and Mr. Cox budding heads in Daredevil, I think this would be an interesting reunion. Yi would take a very big bomb this man made to fulfill his destiny after all.

3 Who is Hello Kitty, Yi?

Deborah Ann Woll as Heng

(Ms. Woll plays Matt Murdock’s on-again off-again love interest, Karen Page in the MCU.)

Pragmata’s narrative has many flaws. For starter, the 2026 polygonal extravaganza pulls the Hollywood turns fast and loose. Player character Hugh was established to A not particularly like children and B definitely not trust machines in first half of the prologue. Then he grew to trust Diana the child looking machine rather fast because the game’s “hack and blast” mechanic demands it. In Nine Sols however, Yi’s attachment to Shuan Shuan was visually established as the primate boy reminding Yi of a girl "back home" named Heng . They both play flute.

Heng (E), or Chang E as she is more widely known nowadays among Chinese speakers, is Chinese myth’s counterpart to Artemis the Olympian (Yes, the one Romans called Diana. Pragmata ain’t subtle either, but what else could it call a lass on the moon who name starts with the letter D?). She is not the moon itself like Selene the Titan, just given godhood to look after the moon. Chang E was not known as a great hunter like Artemis but her husband (Hou) Yi was, in fact he was so great at hunting that he could shoot down 9 suns.

 I am more inclined to believe that Red Candle named her Heng instead of Chang as the part of changing the relationship from spouses to siblings. It’s not to say that the relationship between Yi and Heng does not feel borderline romantic. A piece of fiction usually has a relationship it deems the most important with a texture of stickiness maybe plus a sour smell to mimic something almost sexual.

As the game show Yi’s past during fast travel segments, he always recalls the thick and thin he went with Heng as a child. Then it was revealed that as an adult, Heng went a separate way. Which is a tragedy, as Yi left his dying home world Peng Lai with his beloved sister Heng on it. Yi was not a devoted Taoist yet and Heng was. This would not be the last time, Yi having the Euripides’ Medea moment of “Then why did I do all the bad things I did?”

Anyway, I just think Ms. Woll, whose role in the MCU had a sticky relationship with Cox’s Murdock and a not stick at all relation with Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle, is fitting for this rather no-nonsense character in Nine Sols.

4 Otacon lying down

Elden Henson as Kua Fu, the first of Nine Sols

(Mr. Henson played Auggie Nelson, Matt Mottock’s mate since law school.)

While Nine Sols fits more into the Metroidvania mold, it got one thing in common with the original Megaman: the titular bosses make up 8 boss fights (2 out of the 9 work as a tag team) like the 8 robot masters. Does not help that the first 3 fights against the first 3 Sols involve robotic lackeys. And yes I am putting spaces between the names to indicate how many characters are used. Kua Fu is rather Otacon coded, not only is he the player character’s best friend, his robotic lackey also looks like a Cyborg Ninja with a Metal Gear shoved up their ass…

One very interesting thing Nine Sols does for us myth knowing Chinese speakers, is that the game tends to reverse characters’ mortality. In the myth, (Hou) Yi lived enough to become a villain, Heng (E) became an immortal goddess (Her name still mentioned during Mid-autumn festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month until these days) and Kua Fu dropped dead chasing the sun. In this game, at least for the intended ending, Yi sold his life dearly, Heng died of more or less natural causes long before the game began and Kua Fu would live the rest of his days among primates on Earth.

Though Kua Fu basically telling the primates “Sun also rises” is quite in keeping with how the giant is seen in modern China. While the wiki page in English compared him to Icarus, my 7 years old self’s first hearing of his story is anything but. It was on a TV show, the kind CPC approved educational program for kids. There was an old man surrounding by children, and there were animated segments to illustrate his telling of the ancient tales.

Kua Fu in this telling chased the sun for altruistic purpose. As the gentle giant saw lives frozen to death in the land he resided, he decided to chase the sun and persuade it to shine on his land again. To emphasis on his altruism, Kua Fu had drunk drivers dry during his long chase, but as the fishes begged for their lives, he apologized and gave the water back. Eventually he caught up with the sun and persuaded it to shine on his land again. Then he dropped dead and his corpse nurtured new lives there.

Nine Sols’ Kua Fu, with the character “Fu” meaning “lie down” rather than the usual one meaning “father”, is also an altruistic figure. He became fast friend with Yi because both believed that their effort would save their dying world. So, I guess you cannot cast Murdock without Nelson here.

5 Solving world hunger, no matter the cost

Elodie Yung as Gou Mang, the second of Nine Sols

(Ms. Yung played Matt Mottock’s doomed love interest, Elektra in the MCU.)

In contrast to Kua Fu, I did not know about Gou Mang until playing this game. A bird with human head is not exactly the material for CPC approved educational shows for children. It is nightmare fuel after all. And speaking of nightmare fuel, Yahtzee Crowshaw “spoiling” how the boss fight against lady Gou Mang ended was the last pull for me towards buying and playing Nine Sols. With me writing this long-winded blog now, I cannot say I regret it.

In many ways, Gou Mang is Nine Sols starting to have that “sympathy for the enemies” sauce like 1998’s Metal Gear Solid, with Kua Fu not being Yi’s enemy. After Yi took good care of her and got to what he came for, the player was shown her past: a hungry childhood, her not so evil purpose of solving world hunger and twisted yet genuine care for her Jiang Shi farming drones. As Yi’s own much worse war crimes would be revealed late in the game, player was presented with the question: is Yi really on the moral high ground?

It’s apt that Gou Mang sees Yi’s more liberty laying as morally bankrupt in a time of crisis. So, I guess no one is more fitting to play such a role than the woman who pushed Daredevil to kill.

6 Short tempted one

Harrison Ford as Yan Lao, the third of Nine Sols

(Mr. Ford is a recast for the last and great Willaim Hurt in the MCU)

This would be the first truly out there casting in this piece! Hard to imagine this former carpenter getting into voice-over in these days and age, but Mr. Ford is fitting for this rather filler stage boss. While the Chinese characters are both different, the wiki page in Traditional Chinese (More well-known to native speakers are the ones take more strokes to hand write.), had linked this character to Chinese myth counterpart for Hades. In fact, Yan Wang Pi Qi, “short-tempt like the lord of underworld” is a figure of speech still in use within the generally atheist PRC. Harrison Ford certainly has Yan Wang Pi Qi.

Cannot really blame said lord of underworld. If the 3-way can drive Hades’ court up a wall, then imagine Yan Wang’s court dealing with at least 6-way of reincarnation (With species outside Homo Sapiens mixed in mind you. That’s how Ba Jie in Journey to the West came to be, a god’s soul fell into the way of animals.) on top of that. Yan Lao in Nine Sols is an old man managing a warehouse and his own man cave packed with Solarians’ product of culture. His villain speech included a part of he saw his own grandfather protecting a record with the older man’s own body.

And guess what? Yi can go back and get said record after double-jump is available and let Shuan Shuan listen to it. Nine Sols is not a Soulborne game with its narrative expressed plainly and if From got movie deals, why wasn’t this easier-to-adapt piece getting any chances? Red Candle ain’t no stranger to movie deal either!

7 An object to be desired

Jon Bernthal as Jie Quan, the fourth of Nine Sols

(Mr. Bernthal is MCU’s Punisher and his casting in 2026’s Odyssey is also important to the discussion here.)

James Reece had killed seven armed men in the streets of the financial district in less time than it took most people to use an ATM.

----Only the Dead, Terminal List Book 6 by Jack Carr

The passage above was not written through this James Reece’ point of view. Rather, it’s from the point of view of someone, who is brutal, calculating and homicidal in his own right, seeing Reece being brutal, calculating and homicidal beyond his initial estimation. Just like how Jie Quan, a descendant of Solarians’ dark empire, seeing Yi.

It’s hard not to see Jie as that Ares here. For one thing, he is hot, not in the “only appealing to furry” kind of way. While Nine Sols presents most of its characters as cute little fur balls, this one has the body of a Greek stature to show that he is a nanomachine enhanced super soldier.

The screenshot above is taken from Red Candle’s newest upload to their Youtube channel as the time of writing. It’s the conclusion to their post-launch ARG marketing campaign for Nine Sols, serves both as a coda to the game’s story and a nice “Thanks for playing”. So, it’s funny that “Jie Quan in bunny girl costume” was selected to represent fans’ view of the character. So, who is more fitting to voice the character in Hollywood than the man Christopher Nolan directed to play Menelaus.

In the Iliad, there are more words spent on showing Menelaus’ one leg injury with all that fetishistic flair than his ex-wife who caused the Trojan war. Helen’s face that launched thousand ships is only up to people’s imagination. It’s a strange thing how authors going into more detail about how good-looking men are than women. Take Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Yoshiki Tanaka for example, this lad has an oval face while that bloke has a fine jaw line, yet “young and pretty” are all the ladies get.

Anway, if you ask to say one single word about the interaction between Yi and Jie Quan, that word would be “gay”. To liberate, it’s homo erotic violence. Yi would be captured after a mandated defeat and submitted to rather BDSM looking torture. Not unlike how Punisher tied Daredevil up on that roof back in that 2016 season. So, the actor behind newest Menelaus and Frank Castle shall serve the role well.

Yi can even the odds in his fight against Jie. It involves putting a long and slender cylinder into a tiny tight hole to foul up Jie’s nanomachine bath thus the boss’ first life bar became easier to chew on. Yes, that first part is meant as an anal analogue and no, that last part is not about oral. It’s just so gay.

11 What’s a dreamer and what’s a dream?

Scarlet Johansson as Lady Ethereal, the fifth of Nine Sols

(Pretty much from a not quite spider to a not quite butterfly.)

Nine Sols’ marketing buzzword “Taopunk” is a safe way to market the game. Using one other T word would alienate many who are more likely to find the game culturally resonating, while a C word would piss off some of Red Candle’s neighbors. So, selling the game as a science fictional retelling of Taoism myth and parable it was. Lady Ethereal and the warning against a Matrix scenario is taken from a parable by Zhuang Zi that is not a total stranger for video game. Just look up the prologue of 2006’s Kingdom Hearts 2.

Guess it’s apt of the developers over at Red Candle to only fully translate the name of this one character. Her name in original traditional Chinese text is Fu Die, a word play on the Chinese phrase for “butterfly”, Hu Die. (These are spelling in the common tongue know as Mandarin, they might be identical in some dialects.) So, her whole thing is a warning against one Matrix scenario where people got in then out could not stay sane on the outside. Yet as the pressure from the game’s final boss and the encouragement from Yi piled on, she kept the flawed system going. She is revealed to be only a brain in jar by the end, and she wanted Yi to put her out of her misery.

Ms. Johansson of course is not likely near anything like the animated feature or series I am proposing here. But her roles in more problematic directors’ works, like Her and Lucy made her fitting for this role. Maybe Her like voice over is something she can pick up.

9 Fancy lad

Finn Jones as Fu Xi, the sixth of Nine Sols

(The immortal Iron Fist playing someone not so immortal.)

The final shipped product of Nine Sols has its character uttering short phrases in a made-up language yet that was not always the case. The game might have full Mandarin voice work in some alternative universes. Regardless, voice actors were still cast in this game. It was said that the voice behind Yi won over 2 other candidates yet one of the those was cast as Fu Xi. Yi being the playable action lead needs to sound cool, but while the one behind Fu Xi lacked in cool factor, he made up for sounding fancy.

So I guess the actor playing fancy lad titular super hero should give this rather brief appearance the Hollywood treatment it deserves. Fu Xi is already a zombie by the time Yi confronts him, so there is not too many lines to begin with.

10 Fancy lass

Natalie Dormer as Nv Wa, the seventh of Nine Sols

(Ms. Dormer had a very, very minor role in 2011’s Captain America: First Avenger)

This would be a Game of Thrones reunion for Ms. Dormer and Mr. Jones, with the additional twist of following A Song of Ice and Fire book series bit more closely. Nv Wa, while not giving Yi a life bar to cut down mechanically, is the more active part of the duo narratively. As her twin brother Fu Xi caught the Tian Huo virus, she took a deal with Ei Gong to keep him alive and New Kun Lun generational ship/space station/partial Dyson sphere populated with rich cats.

In comparison to the game’s other reference of Chinese myth, Fu Xi and Nv Wa are actually much older. They are the makers of mortal people after all. In myth, they are the sibling spouses gods usually are. But in Nine Sols, they seem to be lovers who can only express such deep affection for each other through stage plays. With Nv Wa’s feet deformed, it is implied that the twins were products of cousin marrying. But I guess even this incest type drew line regarding siblings.

Still, as sympathy for the twins rises and player’s self-doubt about player character increases, the final boss being the one to blame had become a possibility after this tag team fight.

11 the walking talking Ridley Scott homage

Asia Kate Dillon as Ji, the eighth of Nine Sols

(Oh, you little shits on the internet can shut up about “MCU being ‘woke’” already! As soon as I started to look for someone non-binary, I had to look outside the usually quite blende franchise. The same goes for cast members of Eastern Asia decant.)

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

----the late Rutger Hauser as Roy Batty in 1982’s Blade Runner.

There is this rut regarding science fiction in audio-visual form: got to pay homage to the influential two helmed by Ridley Scott, namely 1979’s Alien and 1982’s Blade Runner. For better or worse, Nine Sols does not jump over this particular rut.

Throughout the game, all 10 Sols plus the 3 Taoist sages have their larger-than-life statures throughout the level. They all have more detailed than the cartoonish reality of this game. Ji being an enigmatic figure, only have this one just outside his boss arena. Got to say, he sure looks like a xenomorph with those long limbs. The man does wear a cap with a disturbingly big eye ball on it, so that counts as a dickhead without the phallic shape. This game was rated T by ESRB after all.

The creative lead over at Red Candle once envisioned this character to use “they/them” pronoun, maybe just because this one is an ancient alien even to the Solarians. A fairly gender-neutral sounding lady was cast as the role. But Red Candle’s counterpart to Supergiant’s Jen Zee, the lady leading art department declined for she just wants to draw a man with 4 equally slender limbs.

Then after Yi files off both of his life bars, Ji’s last words seem to be taken right out of 1982’s Blade Runner. Though Ji saw things Solarians wouldn’t believe because his life span was longer than any of those cat people’s states, while Roy Batty burnt twice as bright in only 4 years.  

With Yi having remorse about killing this old alien, my Chinese speaking brain can certainly see Yi’s journey as from being Confuciusist to stay Confuciusist in the Home. Sweet Home ending or become Taoist and fulfill his destiny in the Shooting Star. Just remember you all, “the House of Ji had it right!” is the whole shtick of Confuciusits.

Anyway, Asia Kate Dillon being a non-binary actor born as a female, should be fitting to voice this slender man disgusted as the cutest among all those cute little fur balls. Maybe Ji get to use “they/them” pronoun in the non-interactive adaption after all.

12 Burke would have been proud!

Sigourney Weaver as Ei Gong, the ninth and final one of Nine Sols

(Ms. Weaver played an underused villain in Marvel’s Defenders)

One thing I am rather fond of Nine Sols: it never reminded me of 1986’s Aliens when I was playing it. Now, look, I am a big fan of James Cameron’s first overtly long cinematic masterpiece, but it’s four decades old and games taking inspiration from it is getting old. But I guess even talking about this game would involve an Aliens reference here.

As Ei Gong’s face shown not even a minute into the game, my only thought was “Check out this Sigourney Weaver wench!” and “Now that’s a mean looking final boss!” By then I did not even know that Yi was THAT Yi. Got to say though, this one is also one out of only 2 with spelling different than what we have in mainland.

Ei Gong is the only irredeemably evil figure in this story, as her unhinged pursue of immortality had led to the Tian Huo plague that led to Solarian extinction on Peng Lai. Then she covered and more bad things happened, including Yi planning a diabolic invasion of Earth: mainly taking local primates’ brain to process a Solarian Matrix and block the star for its energy so the primates’ planet entered an ice age. Once Yi knew that his war crimes were not to save his people, he confronted Ei Gong and was defeated, leading to the event of this game.

The game strikes a very nice balance regarding responsibility. Yes, the final boss is to blame, this is all her fault. But the player character’s sins aren’t washed away either. The weight of two worlds just clashes into that larger-than-life melodramatic science fictional sauce more expensive things constantly fail to cook up.

Ms. Weaver’s recent career was packed with pant suit wearing corporate villains. Ei Gong is cooler than all those for having a light saber and more or less the Force. After seeing her character in Defenders just got sidelined in quite the underwhelming way, it would be nice to see her acting against Charlie Cox before an animated scene that made my 35 year old cynical ass sob like an infant.

13 Josh James Brolin, give me back my voice!

Paul Bettany as Chi You

(Mr. Bettany voiced Javiers between 2008’s Iron Man and 2015’s Avengers Age of Ultron. No, not even going to mention that v-word.)

Guess this is good as any place to mention the machine intelligences in Nine Sols. This is a piece of science fiction produced in the 2020s after all, so thinking machines are unavoidable in it. You got Yi’s digital scan known as Ru Yi (Loosely translated as “Yi mimic”), so that’s a double casting for Mr. Cox. They are the more mild mannered Matt Murdock to Yi’s pissed off Daredevil after all. There is also a Shan Hai 9000 who tried to save a cat, the whole point of the post-launch ARG, but I haven’t put much into how they sound. I only care about the map they give out.

But Chi You, a monster the Yellow Emperor had conquered in Chinese myth, has a much interesting iteration in this game. They are a Solarian battle bot who went against their programming and became one of the merchants in the game. The only one who can say “What’re you buying?” actually given the other 2 venders in the gamer are a 3D printer and Yi’s old pal Kua Fu. So, the MCU cast member whose contribution was usually in the voice-over realm shall ask the question.

Interlude Those DO come after.

So that’s all for the cat people and their robotic servants as they made way for those come after. No, not COE33’s bullshit line that somehow became iconic ironically. In Nine Sols, humanity is those come after. Yi have option to tell that to Kua Fu. When he saw Heng for last time before he nuked new Kun Lun, she seemed to ask “For those come after, bro?” and his action answered “Yeah, sis.”

Collage’s ending theme would only be fitting for this Shooting Star ending while Home, Sweet Home should only have a black background with white words credits roll but I guess the havoc production of this game did not permit that. It’s very a shame since Red Candle pulled the different credits roll for different ending tones so well back in 2017’s Detention. Just like how that game managed to have a film adaption while Nine Sols remains a game. Anyway, allow me to finish with the 2 primates.

14 Give the homicidal hot-shot some shit

Hoon Lee as Shen Nong

Time to finally talk about aforementioned “many who are more likely to find the game culturally resonating”. It takes not one but two C-words: the culturally Chinese. The group calls themselves “Yan Huang Zi Sun”, the descendants from the Flame emperor and the Yellow emperor. Sheng Nong, the non-player character that increases Yi’s life bar, practically became the Flame emperor as the side-quest to save his people is completed in the game.

 As a PRC citizen, yours truly find the idea of a white man voicing this character appalling. So, as a compromise, a Chinese American has to be cast. Hence Hoon Lee. I only saw Mr. Lee in 2 shows, the finished Banshee and the canceled Warrior. Mr. Lee played a sidekick who rightly gave the shows’ respective action leads a lot of shit. So, time for Mr. Lee to give an alien invader with remorse some stain taking-to.

15 The kid that got saved by a cat

Judy Alice Lee as Shuan Shuan

(It’s spelled as “Xuan” in mainland.)

As a developer who got into deep shit with a Leviathan for one stupid joke, Red Candle sought every chance to apologize in Nine Sols. Yi saving Shuan Shuan from a gruesome death sure is one of those, as the boy would grow up to be the Huang in Yan Huang Zi Sun. Unfortunately, yours truly do not know any Chinese American lady who can fit the role. So, as a further compromise, I would imagine a Korean American in the role just to keep the duo at least within the Eastern Asian group with yellow skin color. Hence, Judy Alice Lee of Hades Two fame.

She is good enough for miHoYo as an opera singer in their fantasy China of Genshin Impact. So, she should be good enough as the mystified ancestor yours truly share with at least with miHoyo’s founding members. The brief flashbacks with Melinoe as a child in Hade II are what I refer to. I spent more than 130 hours in that game and showered loads of NPCs with gifts. So, I guess Ms. Lee deserve to play someone who got showered with gift in this other story. And I guess Ms. Lee should be pulling double duty as Yi the lad in those flashbacks as well.

Epilogue: Get [INSERT PERFECT TENSE FORM OF VERB USED TO UNPRINTABLE HERE], Disney, you [INSERT NOUN REMAINS UNPRINTABLE HERE]!

2025‘s Nobody, not to be confused with 2021’s Nobody and 2025’s Nobody 2, is an animated feature produced by Shanghai Animated Film studio. As far as I can remember, this is only the second time said studio attempted at a summer blockbuster after 1999’s “Disney wannabe” Lotus Lantern. Needless to say, the 2025 flick is more successful given its much better word of mouth. Turns out, “Japanimation”, manga and video game are better examples to follow when one wants to make an adventure story after “the End of History”.

It would be false to call 2025’s Nobody an original work as it was based on a longer story arc within a manhua anthology based on Chinese folklore. The flick can work as a basis for Red Candle if they ever want to turn Nine Sols into some animated thing. Both stories are both about furry sentient creatures having limited interaction with human after all.

Yet Nobody from the Lang Lang mountain fell into a rut I dislike in PRC: public domain mining in all too familiar territories. While it does stand out among the Journey to West spin-offs, it is still just another Journey to the bloody West spin-off. Chinese myth is vast and much older than a novel written shortly before the establishment of USA! Ancie