Yang Yu, director of "Ne Zha 2", an animated feature film that recently became China's all-time top-grossing film, said in an interview with China Media Group (CMG) that he makes every film as if it were his last.
By Thursday, “Ne Zha 2” had taken in more than 5.77 billion yuan (about 804.84 million U.S. dollars) in box office revenue, achieving the milestone in just eight days and five hours, according to ticketing platforms Maoyan and Beacon.
Surpassing 2021 war epic "The Battle at Lake Changjin", the film has become the highest-grossing film of all time in China.
The animated feature is the sequel to the 2019 animated blockbuster "Ne Zha", drawing 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 in box office revenue, while also winning numerous accolades.
Yang said that making "Ne Zha 2" following the huge success of the first movie brought rising expectations from the audience and pushed the creative team to set high standards for the sequel.
"[The huge success of the prequel] gave us momentum, pressure and anxiety. The prequel was a big surprise to the audience, because they had no expectation for it, but 'Ne Zha 2' was produced amid rising expectation, which put us under pressure and kept pushing us forward. So, we set high standards for 'Ne Zha 2' and pushed ourselves to the limit," said Yang.
Noting that Ne Zha is anxious about his appearance, Yang said he introduced this feature purposely to present the character's inner struggle and avoid depicting a flat character.
"The human nature is complex. One will gradually start to doubt himself after being told 100 times he is wrong. Ne Zha is no exception and he will experience the same inner struggle as everyone does. We did this to avoid building a flat character," Yang said.
Yang said the rise of China's animation movie industry and the excellent works of his fellow filmmakers have been encouraging him to do his best in making masterpieces.
"The Chinese animation movie industry has produced many excellent works over recent years, and I think the trend does exit and I have no doubt about this. Over recent years, animation film makers have been encouraging their colleagues and have been witnessing the release of a slew of masterpieces, which also encouraged me to make more breakthroughs. I produce every film as if it were the last work in my lifetime, leaving no space for further improvement, but I will still try to make breakthroughs in my next work," said Yang.
I make every film as if it were my final work: "Ne Zha 2" director
Geoeconomic confrontation is the leading short-term global threat in 2026, the World Economic Forum (WEF) warned in its Global Risks Report 2026 released on Wednesday ahead of its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The report ranks geoeconomic confrontation as the top risk for 2026, followed by interstate conflict, extreme weather, societal polarization, and misinformation and disinformation. It also identifies geoeconomic confrontation as the most severe risk over the next two years.
"I think if there is to be one key takeaway from the report, it's that we are entering an age of competition and this new competitive order is then shaping current global risks, but it is also shaping and to some extent hindering our ability to actually cope with them. That's really the key takeaway. If we take a look at, the number one risk both for 2026 and two years out, it's dual economic confrontation. But then if we look at the risks 10 years out. It's really the climate and environment related risks. All of these things require global cooperation and that's where we're seeing a big backsliding in this new age of competition," said Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the WEF.
Economic risks showed the largest increase in the two-year outlook, with concerns over economic downturns, inflation, rising debt and potential asset bubbles intensifying amid geoeconomic tensions, the report said.
Environmental risks remain the most severe overall, led by extreme weather, biodiversity loss and critical changes to Earth systems. The report noted that three-quarters of respondents expect a turbulent environmental outlook.
Risks related to adverse outcomes of artificial intelligence rose sharply, climbing from 30th in the two-year horizon to fifth in the 10-year outlook, reflecting concerns over impacts on labor markets, society and security.
The 21st edition of the report draws on views from more than 1,300 experts, policymakers and industry leaders.
The WEF's annual meeting will be held in Davos from Jan 19 to 23 and draw nearly 3,000 guests from more than 130 countries and regions to participate.
"So overall, we are starting to see this shift away from what have traditionally been the ways in which people have been able to cooperate. Now, that is not to say that any of this is a foregone conclusion. And I think that's a really important message around the risks report. None of this is set in stone. All of this is in the hands of leaders. Whether they choose to cooperate and invest in resilience or whether they do not. So that's really what we'll be focused on next week in Davos bringing leaders together under this overall theme of 'a spirit of dialogue' and trying to reestablish relationships, cooperation and trust. That's the fundamental," said Zahidi.
WEF warns of rising geoeconomic risks in 2026
