"McDull: Kung Fu Ding Ding" is hard to understand because it really isn't a cartoon made for children; only adults can see the grayness behind its gray humor. In the cinema, many scenes make children laugh, but those who have been through a bit of life feel a twinge in their throat. For example, when seeing Mrs. Mak dealing with 'menopause', you might burst out laughing while your heart twitches inexplicably; when you see McDull and Mrs. Mak taking turns to point out each other's flaws, kids laugh hysterically, but you feel moved; when McDull foolishly asks the child being picked up by his mom, 'Next time, do you still want to carry instant noodles up the mountain?', you feel calm, realizing that dialogue would never come from you; when McDull suddenly gains enlightenment at the martial arts contest, sweeping through all opponents alone but ends up beaten into a pig head, you laugh uncontrollably, but much of that laughter comes from surprise.
If, at the ending, enlightened McDull had shouted, 'You all attack together!' and then 'Half of the watermelon is yours,' taking down all the children in the audience, viewers probably wouldn't have been surprised. Yet, the one who gets beaten, the one turned into a pig head, is McDull. It seems that a temporary enlightenment still cannot change him.
'You don't suddenly go from being someone hard to hit to someone easy to fight; McDull is the same. There are no miracles; you can't go from someone who doesn't know how to fight to someone who can fight in six seconds,' explains Xie Liwen.
You can have an epiphany about life, but after enlightenment, you are still the same as yourself.
It's cruel. McDull is not a cartoon; McDull is actually a fable, an adult fable.
