When Michelle Yeoh first saw the animated fantasy Ne Zha 2 in Hong Kong, the Oscar-winning actor walked out of the cinema dreaming about a version that would enchant English-speaking moviegoers.
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The Chinese epic is the highest-grossing animated film of all time, overtaking Pixar's Inside Out 2 this year with worldwide ticket sales of more than $US2.2 billion.
Yeoh, the star of Everything Everywhere All at Once and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, said Ne Zha 2 seemed to her like an ideal movie for a global, all-ages audience.
"I think the director and his amazing team, they pushed all the boundaries," she said.
"They created this magical world that I hadn't seen to this level of superb animation before. The intricacies are mind-blowing."
So, when Yeoh got a call asking if she wanted to lend her voice to the English-language version of the blockbuster, what was her response?
"Hell yes," she recalled in a recent interview.
A version of the film dubbed into English is now showing in Australian cinemas.
Based on Xu Zhonglin's 16th-century novel Investiture of the Gods, the movie tells the story of a rebellious little child, Ne Zha, who is the reincarnation of a demon. Born to mortal parents and feared by the gods for his wild, uncontrolled powers, the boy sets out to prove his fate is not predetermined.
In the first film, 2019's Ne Zha, he sacrifices himself. In the second, he's put to the test to try to save his friend and his village.
Don't worry if you haven't seen the first film - which grossed more than $US700 million worldwide - the sequel tells the audience everything they need to know.
"It's such a universal language of family, of love, of the underdog, of someone who's ostracised, misunderstood just because you're born different," Yeoh, who provides the voice of Ne Zha's mother Lady Yin, said.
"It immerses you into our culture. And it's such a beautiful way to cross that bridge."
The making of Ne Zha 2 took five years and required the work of some 4000 people from 138 Chinese animation companies.
The finished film, which runs to an epic 143 minutes, includes 2400 animation shots and 1900 special effects shots.
When the subtitled Mandarin-language version was released earlier this year, Chinese communities around the world rented cinemas to see the film.
Fluent in English, Malay and Cantonese, Yeoh has the benefit of knowing Mandarin but admits even she had trouble keeping up with the subtitles and all the spectacular things happening on screen.
She gives the English translation, which she admits is a tricky art, her stamp of approval and believes the English version will help the spectacular saga resonate with a whole new global audience.
"With translation, a lot of the times the nuances are lost, right?," she said. "Because also you have to sync and find the right number of words to say the same thing. And with the Chinese language, especially with the folklores and things like that, the way they say it is very poetic as well. So it is not easy.
"I think they struck a very good balance of not making it too classical, but also more contemporary."
Yeoh reckons Hollywood should be tapping into more Asian gods and myths. For decades, the big studios have depicted Greek gods like Zeus and Viking warrior gods like Thor.
Mythological characters like the Chinese ones showcased in Ne Zha 2 had rich movie potential: "They're warriors and demigods. I guess it's like Zeus, you know, and Thor, but these are ours. And I think that's very important because when you learn about another culture's myths, you have a nice, deeper understanding, and it teaches you to embrace something that is different".
While Yeoh emphasises the cultural richness of the film, she wants audiences from all walks of life to understand that the most important thing is that it's "a beautiful story."
"I think we should stop seeing it as, 'Oh it's a Chinese film'," she added.
When she watched the movie for the first time she was unable to tear her eyes away from the screen: "You're going up to the heavens. You're going down to the bottom of the seas. You see the dragons. You see all these kinds of things and, just for that two hours, be transported".
Source: Reuters/AP/AAP
