Nobody (2025 film)

Nobody (Chinese: 浪浪山小妖怪; pinyin: Làng làng shān xiǎo yāo guài; literally The Little Monster of Langlang Mountain)^[2] is a 2025 Chinese animated fantasy film written and directed by Yu Shui. It was animated by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio and is based on an episode of the anthology series Yao-Chinese Folktales. It is the highest-grossing 2D animated film made by a Chinese company.

After failing to rob a traveller, a Pig yaoguai tries to find employment at King's Cave, a settlement run by a powerful yaoguai, with help from his friend, a Toad yaoguai. They are given the impossible task of cleaning a dirty cauldron with rags, as the leader of King's Cave intends to capture and devour "the Tang monk" who is journeying to the West to retrieve the scrolls of Buddha, which grant immortality. It is said that eating a piece of the monk's flesh will also grant a yaoguai immortality.

Pig uses his coarse bristles to bring the cauldron to a perfect shine, but in doing so he erases the calligraphy written on it by his boss's grandfather. Barely escaping alive, Pig comes up with a different scheme: he and Frog will reach the West before the monk and retrieve the scrolls first, gaining immortality.

To ease their passage through human lands, they decide to disguise themselves as the famed monk and his party. They draft in an overly talkative Weasel yaoguai and a stuttering, cowardly Gorilla yaoguai. Toad takes the role of the monk, Pig the role of the pig disciple, Weasel the role of the quiet but monstrous sand disciple, and Gorilla the role of the Monkey King.

Toad is soon separated from the group and kidnapped by a tribe of dog yaoguai, who plan to eat him, thinking that he is the monk whose flesh will grant immortality. The Second-in-Command takes a sip of the Toad "soup", but the water is only warm, not boiling, and Toad is unharmed. When the others arrive at the dogs' cave, the dogs – frightened, because the real Monkey King has already wiped out the yaoguai of King's Cave – treat the group to an impromptu spa session before feeding them, giving them new clothes and sending them on their way.

The group then comes across a small village being terrorised by a Rat yaoguai. With Pig and Gorilla's strength, the group succeed in defeating the Rat, and are humbled by the villagers' kind treatment of them, including making celebratory banners that read "VANQUISHER OF THE YAOGUAI".

The group stop by Pig's home, and meet his parents and siblings. Pig's disabled father, drunk on wine, teaches Weasel a special transformation ability that he also taught Pig. It will grant incredible strength, but at the cost of the yao spirit; once the effect wears off, the yaoguai will revert to their original, dumb animal form. Meanwhile, the dog yaoguai are visited by the real Tang monk and his group. Thinking that they are impostors, the dog yaoguai attack them and are all wiped out, save for the Second-in-Command.

Pig's group moves on, and decides to stop at Little Thunderclap Temple, unaware that it is full of yaoguai led by Yellow Brow, a former disciple of Buddha and now a very tall and phenomenally powerful magical being. Thinking that they are talking to the real Tang monk, Yellow Brow and his men take the form of Buddha and his entourage. Toad and Pig are able to fool them for a while, but are found out and kicked out of the temple.

They decide to beg for food in the nearby human settlement. The villagers beg the "Tang monk" and his disciples to save their children, who have been kidnapped by yaoguai, and Pig agrees, not realising that the kidnapper is Yellow Brow. The remaining children are brought out from hiding to celebrate, but Yellow Brow's yaoguai arrive and attack. Pig and the others try to defend the villagers, but they are overcome and exposed as frauds to the disgust of the villagers. Pig's party and the children are taken back to the temple.

Yellow Brow says that he plans to eat all of the children that night in order to gain the strength needed to face off against the Tang monk's group. The Second-in-Command of the dog yaoguai – who still thinks Toad is the real monk – arrives and warns that "impostors" (the real Tang monk's group) will arrive at Little Thunderclap Temple the next day. Yellow Brow orders him to be taken away and executed, but offers Toad's party a place on his staff, acknowledging their skill at deception. He says that if they help him devour the children and kill the monk, they will be allowed to eat the monk's flesh and gain immortality.

Gorilla refuses outright to help a child murderer, and is taken away to be executed. Toad, seeing no other option, agrees, and Pig reluctantly joins him. Weasel waits for Yellow Brow's men to leave then also quits rather than help in Yellow Brow's plan.

Gorilla is taken up to the edge of a cliff from which the condemned are thrown to their death, and is allowed his last words. He bellows "I am the Monkey King!" across the valley. The Second-in-Command, who survived his execution, then climbs up the cliff and assaults the guards, saying that he knew Toad's group were the real deal. He is defeated and thrown down again, but buys enough time for Pig and then Weasel to run up the mountain and subdue the guards.

Pig, Weasel and Gorilla vow to free the children, and sneak into the Temple. They steal Yellow Brow's armour while he is having a pre-dinner bath, and – with Weasel at the bottom, Pig on his shoulders and Gorilla at the top – all wear it together to mimic Yellow Brow. They order the prison guard to give them the children, but as they lead the kids to freedom they are spotted by Yellow Brow's top man. Toad tricks him into letting the children go, but stays behind in the temple, hoping he can avoid further trouble.

However, while Pig, Weasel and Gorilla lead the children back to the village, Yellow Brow discovers their deception and leads an army to stop them. Pig sends Weasel and Gorilla on with the kids, deciding to take Yellow Brow on alone. He uses the transformation ability to become a tall, incredibly strong fighter and effortlessly annihilates Yellow Brow's warriors, but he is no match for Yellow Brow himself, who pummels him.

Before Yellow Brow can give the killing blow, though, Toad races up and tricks Yellow Brow into letting him close to Pig – at which point he also uses the transformation ability and merges with Pig's body. It turns out that Pig's drunk father told all of them the secret. The pair are able to fight back against Yellow Brow, but he is still too powerful, and beats them down again, only for Gorilla and Weasel to arrive and also use the transformation ability to merge with Pig and Toad.

Working in unison, and with their powers at their limits, Pig, Toad, Weasel and Gorilla take part in an epic battle with Yellow Brow that strips him of his magical energy, knocking him out and reducing him to his original form – a young boy.

With the threat to the village now gone, Pig, Toad, Weasel and Gorilla separate. But having used the ultimate move, they only have moments before their yao energy will dissipate and they will be reduced to mere animals. They all hope that they will be reincarnated into better lives next time, but are satisfied that they lived their own way, instead of being tools of the powerful. They realise that they don't even know one another's names, but it's too late: as the sun rises, they transform, one by one, into animals and run away.

Buddha arrives and reprimands Yellow Brow, saying that he was put on Earth to be a test to the Tang monk, not to terrorise children. Buddha returns his power and sends him out to challenge the monk's party (a confrontation seen in the original Journey to the West), but warns him that once the monk has defeated him, he will face punishment in Heaven for his misdeeds. Buddha's aid asks what is to be done with the four former yao animals, but Buddha just laughs.

Later, the Tang Monk's party, led by the Monkey King, walk past Pig, who is now a small, cute, clueless boar piglet. The Monkey King notices one of the "VANQUISHER OF THE YAOGUAI" banners hanging from a tree, has a moment of realisation and chuckles over "these little ones". He plucks four magical hairs from his head, saying "One for each of you. These can save your lives," and lets them be carried off by the wind.

At the village near Little Thunderclap Mountain, a family – now reunited with their children – leaves an offering at a shrine that holds small models of Pig, Toad, Weasel and Gorilla.

• Ziping Chen as pig yaoguai
• Wenliang Dong as weasel yaoguai
• Yang Lu as toad yaoguai
• Cong Liu as gorilla yaoguai
• Qiang Lin as Huangmei Dawang

Yao-Chinese Folktales is an eight episode animated anthology series that garnered over 260 million views on Bilibili by 2025. The pig comes from one of the episodes of the series^[3] and the film adapts the episode The Summer of the Little Monster (小妖怪的夏天).^[4] Yu Shui, who wrote and directed Yao-Chinese Folktales, wrote and directed the film adaptation made by Shanghai Animation Film Studio.^[5]

Over the course of four years^[6] 600 people worked on the production team and created 1,800 shots and over 2,000 scenes. The style of ink wash painting was used.^[7] Yu is from Shanxi^[6] and the film features many notable architectural sites of Shanxi such as the Pagoda of Fogong Temple, Foguang Temple, and Guangsheng Temple.^[8] The arhats in the film were based on the 18 arhat statues in Chongqing Temple and Shuanglin Temple.^[6]

Journey to the West served as an inspiration for the film.^[9] The actors for the 1986 television adaptation of Journey to the West are briefly shown on a scroll.^[10]

Yu stated that none of the yaoguai have names, as the film's title in English conveys.^[6]

Nobody premiered on 2 August 2025.^[3] The film was released in Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia on 6 November, and in North America on 7 November.^[11] The film was shown at TIFFCOM on 29 October as part of the Chinese Film Screenings program.^[9] It was shown as part of the China Film Pavilion organised by the China Film Group Corporation at the American Film Market held from 11 to 15 November.^[12]

In its opening week, Nobody placed second at the Chinese box office behind Dead to Rights. It rose to first in its second week.^[3][13] The film earned over $215.3 million^[1] and was seen by over 47 million people.^[14] 3.2 million units of merchandise for the film was sold^[15] and over 500 million yuan was earned from merchandise.^[16]

Ten days into its theatrical run,^[17] Nobody became the highest-grossing Chinese 2D animated film,^[3] surpassing the record set by Big Fish & Begonia (2016).^[18] It is the highest gross 2D animated film in China, surpassing the record set by Suzume (2022),^[19][5] and is the highest grossing film by Shanghai Animation Film Studio.^[14]

On Douban the film received a score of 8.6 compared to the 8.5 for Ne Zha 2.^[20] Review bombing occurred after a Q&A session featuring Fu Shou'er and Su Min due to the two's interpretation of the film and the character of the pig mom.^[21]

21st Century Business Herald's review of the film praised the story's progression from simple to complex.^[4] Zhang Meiting, writing for Caixin, praised the expansion of the characters between the episode and the film.^[22]

• Nobody at IMDb