Ne Zha 2 director launched his career with this wild animated short — and a much wilder backstory

The meteoric rise of the Chinese movie Ne Zha 2 has been stunning: The sequel has broken worldwide records for an animated movie, and as of this writing, has reportedly earned more than $2 billion at the international box office, putting it at No. 5 on the all-time highest-grossing-movie list, above Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The film’s success has prompted an industry wave of speculation about what this might mean for the future of Chinese animation, fantasy film...