Plot: The plot is relatively intricate, following Qing Ming who goes to Tiandu to fulfill his master's last wish. Once there he gets involved in a pretty dark mystery involving the princess. At the same time, the structure of the film is pretty basic, with gradual reveals that uncover a lot of hidden drama between the main characters and leave no mystery behind.
Watches
July 17, 2024
A big, hefty Chinese blockbuster fantasy film from Jinming Guo, one of the young talents. It's good to see they can deliver a film like this with proper CG, even though the quality isn't quite as consistent as you'd like. But if you want epic, Guo has you covered, as the film keeps piling up drama and fantasy.
It's not quite up there with the best in the genre, the story is a bit convoluted and the drama gets a tad too heavy-handed (slowing the film down), but there's so much beauty to look at and there are so many big, epic battles that the good outweighed the bad by a big margin. I wonder where the sequels are though, I thought this was supposed to be the first in a series of films.
April 17, 2021
It's nice to see China is finally getting competent at CG, making films like The Yin-Yang master a lot easier to stomach. This elaborate mystery, set in a fantasy universe, is quite a spectacle. It's still not quite ready to compete with the better films in the genre (Legend of the Demon Cat comes to mind), but it's very welcome filler alright.
The sets and costumes are lush, the cinematography is beautiful and the score has some excellent music. The problem here is that the drama is a little too heavy-handed and plentiful for a film like this, which creates some pacing issues. Other than that, a fine film, it's clear Guo feels at home in this genre.