Dream of Eternity
晴雅集
China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 132 mins.
Director: Guo Jingming 郭敬明.
Rating: 5/10.
Style once again triumphs over content in this bloodless costume fantasy by writer-director Guo Jingming.
STORY
Ancient China, Tiandu city. After his master Zhongxing is killed in a battle with the Serpent of Misfortune, young yin-yang master Qingming (Zhao Youting) travels to Tiandu city, where strange phenomena seem to presage the re-emergence of the evil serpent after 300 years of being suppressed. At night Qingming meets, and duels with, Boya (Deng Lun), a young Buddhist master pursuing a demon called Killing Stone (Sun Chenjun) who had stolen a pipa. Qingming defends Killing Stone, whom he later takes on as a disciple. Next day, at a ceremony on Jingyun terrace in the royal palace, Qingming again meets Boya, as well as the other Buddhist masters summoned to help the city – southern master Longye (Chun Xia) and temple master He Shouyue (Wang Duo), who seems antagonistic towards Qingming. Suspicious of each other, they then retire for the night, after Longye and He Shouyue have cast individual spells to seal off the area and the city from malign forces. Inside his own room Qingming finds a contraption designed to stop him leaving. Next day the four masters are officially presented to the royal princess, Changping (Wang Ziwen), who is 30, unmarried and rumoured to use sorcery to manipulate the aged empress. In mid-ceremony comes the news that Hongruo, an aged master who was due to attend, has been found murdered. The aged empress, who is only heard from behind a screen, orders Changping to lead an investigation into Hongruo’s death, as well as to take charge of the battle against the serpent, which is rumoured to be hiding inside a human body. As the Celestial temple was sealed off last night, Hongruo’s murderer is assumed to be among those present. Changping gives the four masters three days to reawaken the gods and catch demons to protect the city against the serpent. The other masters are suspicious of Qingming as his mother was a fox demon. But later He Shouyue confides that he is actually the conjuring spirit 式神 of Zhongxing, Qingming’s late master, who left him to protect the aged empress. Subsequently, Changping is found unconscious and Qingming saves her by sucking out an evil worm from her back, almost dying himself from the effort. Then one night Longye is killed by a demon, but before dying she manages to reveal to Qingming the identity of Hongruo’s murderer.
REVIEW
An awful amount of visual design has been lavished on a ho-hum screenplay in Dream of Eternity 晴雅集, the sixth theatrically released feature by Shanghai-based writer-director-stylista Guo Jingming 郭敬明, still best known for his millennial tetralogy Tiny Times 小时代 (2013-15). Sporting some of the same metrosexual bloodlessness as his first excursion into costume fantasy, L.O.R.D: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties 爵迹 (2016) – whose sequel, 冷血狂宴 (literally, “Cold Blood, Wild Feast”), went straight to the web three weeks before Dream’s release – Dream of Eternity at least doesn’t go the same route of copious motion-capture. But it still has all of Guo’s hallmarks of a dramatically weak, highly derivative script that’s more interested in style than substance. At RMB452 million, its box office was slightly better than L.O.R.D’s but still only a solid success rather than a major hit.
Guo’s script is adapted from the Japanese The Yin-Yang Master 阴阳师 (aka Onmyoji) short stories originally serialised from 1986 and later collected into a novel that became the first in a long-running series still being published today. The author was Yumemakura Baku 梦枕貘, a prolific writer of science fiction and costume fantasy, one of whose novels was recently filmed by Mainland director Chen Kaige 陈凯歌 (Legend of the Demon Cat 妖猫传, 2017). Yumemakura’s Yin-Yang series has already been mined by the cinema several times, including The Yin Yang Master 阴阳师 (2001, dir. Takita Yojiro 滝田洋二郎) and The Yinyang Master 侍神令 (dir. Li Weiran 李蔚然), the latter set for release on Chinese New Year’s Day 2021. Like L.O.R.D, Dream of Eternity is the first of two films centred on the same characters – the second being 泷夜曲 (literally, “The Ballad of Longye”), titled after the female master from the south, due for release in 2022.
Part costume murder mystery, part fantastical action movie, Dream’s thin narrative is heavy on superficial detail (lots of hokum about spells and demons) but light on real substance. Assembled to save the city of Tiandu from the Serpent of Misfortune which has been suppressed for 300 years, four Buddhist masters assemble in the palace complex and spend more time spying on each other and parading in cool costumes than doing their job of harnessing the powers of good against evil. As a whodunit, Dream doesn’t pass muster, and as a study of four conflicted masters it fails to engage because the characters and performances are so bloodless. Guo seems to aim for a languid style that’s pregnant with foreboding; instead he ends up with a gorgeously designed and costumed fashion parade, with his regular d.p., Taiwan’s Che Liangyi 车亮逸 [Randy Che], framing the whole thing with flowing camerawork and moody lighting that’s especially succulent during night work on the city’s river.
There’s no attempt at naturalism, with Tiandu an entirely studio-bound creation; occasional flashes of humour by lead character Qingming (Taiwan’s Zhao Youting 赵又廷 [Mark Chao], not very expressive at the best of times) aren’t enough to break the artificial spell. Other lead roles are played by the boyishly pretty Deng Lun 邓伦, 28 (in his big-screen debut after TV) and Wang Duo 王铎, 29 (L.O.R.D), with neither required to do much more than stand there and recite their lines. Actress Chun Xia 春夏 (Port of Call 踏雪寻梅, 2015) is wasted as a female master from the south, but presumably gets her time in the sun in the sequel. Though she’s worked mostly in TV the past few years, Wang Ziwen 王子文 (Fall in Love 爱神, 2013) makes more of an impression as the duplicitous princess in charge.
Action by regular Sun Nuo 孙诺 is visually kinetic but, like the whole picture, uninvolving. Like many Mainland action fantasies, the final half-hour, as the serpent attacks the city, is solid VFX. Music by Japanese veteran Kawai Kenji 川井宪次 is pretty conventional, though not as mechanical as many of his efforts.
The film was shot at Hengdian Studios, south of Shanghai, in summer-autumn 2019. It is also known in English as The Ying-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity, though that is not the title on the print. Reportedly, the film was withdrawn from Mainland cinemas on 4 Jan 2021 due to claims of similarities with the US action fantasy Doctor Strange (2016). Guo has faced charges of plagiarism several times in his career.
CREDITS
Presented by Hehe (Shanghai) Pictures (CN), Shanghai ZUI (CN), Thinkingdom Pictures (CN), Shanghai Film Group (CN), Black Ant (Shanghai) Film (CN), Beijing Haohan Xingpan TV & Film Media Culture (CN), Beijing MaxTimes Cultural Development (CN), Beijing Universe Cultural Development (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Dongyang Sanshang Media (CN), Zhongming Shengshi (Shenzhen) Film Group (CN).
Script: Guo Jingming. Novel: Yumemakura Baku. Photography: Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Yu Baiyang. Music: Kawai Kenji. Production design: Tu Nan. Styling: Huang Wei. Sound: Tao Jing. Action: Sun Nuo. Visual effects: Song Wei. Executive direction: Gu Rong.
Cast: Zhao Youting [Mark Chao] (Qingming, master), Deng Lun (Boya, master), Wang Ziwen (Changping, princess/Fang Yue), Chun Xia (Longye, southern master), Wang Duo (He Shouyue, master), Sun Chenjun (Shashengshi/Killing Stone, demon), Xu Kaicheng (crazy painter), Ou Mide (Xuetiangou, demon), Ju Xiaowen (Baimuyao, demon), Lu Zhanxiang (Jinlingzi, demon), Wang Qing (Fayao/Hair Demon).
Release: China, 25 Dec 2020.