Monster Hunt

捉妖记

Hong Kong/China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 3-D (China only), 116 mins.

Director: Xu Chengyi 许诚毅 [Raman Hui].

Rating: 7/10.

Well-packaged family entertainment disguises its unoriginality with top CG animation.

STORY

Ancient China. During a civil war in the monster world, the old Monster King is deposed and killed; the pregnant Monster Queen manages to escape to the human world with two faithful retainers, Zhugao and Fat Ying. A legend says her baby will change both worlds, so assassins are sent to kill her. In Yongning village, southern China, Song Tianyin (Jing Boran) lives with his dotty grandmother (Jin Yanling). The latter still dreams of finding Song Tianyin’s father, Song Daitian (Guo Xiaodong), a distinguished palace swordsman and fifth-level monster-hunter who disappeared one day, leaving Song Tianyin as an ineffectual mayor of Yongning. Meanwhile, the Monster Hunt Bureau has been so successful that it has been disbanded; its former head, wealthy entrepreneur Ge Qianhu (Zhong Hanliang), gathers many of his former monster-hunters and offers a reward if they can catch the baby king soon to be born; by so doing, the monster world will be thrown into turmoil and the Monster Hunt Bureau will be revived. In human guise, Zhugao (Zeng Zhiwei) and Fat Ying (Wu Junru) arrive on the edge of Yongning village where they go to Song Tianyin’s restaurant. They are exposed as monsters by another customer, level-two monster hunter Huo Xiaolan (Bai Baihe), who, along with a rival monster-hunter, Luo Gang (Jiang Wu), rescues Song Tianyin. That night, the dying Monster Queen kidnaps Song Tianyin and impregnates him with her foetus for safe keeping. Next day, Ge Qianhu arrives with his men and slaughters the whole village, which is actually composed of peaceful monsters in human disguise. Song Tianyin and Huo Xiaolan decide to leave for Shuntian city, to sell the foetus Song Tianyin is carrying inside him. En route they meet Luo Gang, who suggests they all team up; but Huo Xiaolan refuses. At an overnight inn, Song Tianyin and Huo Xiaolan meet a wealthy but childless couple, Zheng Tao (Bao Jianfeng) and Luo Ying (Yan Ni), who are also on their way to Shuntian to attend a private banquet at Heaven Restaurant that will cure Zheng Tao’s impotence. That night Song Tianyin clandestinely gives birth to the baby king and he and Huo Xiaolan manage to escape. In Shuntian, they sell the baby to a pawnbroker (Tang Wei) for 100 taels, even though they’ve both started to become attached to it, and even given it a name, Huba. At Heaven Restaurant the exclusive banquet, organised by Ge Qianhu and catered by a skilful chef (Yao Chen), begins, with Zhugao and Fat Ying in human disguise among the guests. Also in the vicinity are Luo Gang, still looking for a bounty, and Song Tianyin’s mother, still looking for Song Daitian. Ge Qianhu then announces he has a surprise dish for his guests.

REVIEW

Despite officially being China’s top-grossing film of all time – grossing RMB2.4 billion from a two-month release – Monster Hunt 捉妖记 is less jaw-dropping in either originality or content. An unremarkable costume action-comedy jazzed up with lots of cute and cuddly CG monsters, it ends up as well-packaged family entertainment in which the human cast manage to stay just ahead of the visual effects but not by so much that it wouldn’t work equally well as a wholly animated film. Mainland audiences have responded to the homegrown novelty feel and the 3-D; others may not be so impressed.

Xu Chengyi 许诚毅 [Raman Hui], a Hong Kong-born, US-based animator in his early 50s who previously co-directed Shrek the Third (2007), does at least give his “monsters” recognisably Asian characteristics rather than smart-talking American ones, and technically the CG work is very fluid. On a narrative level, however, the script by Hong Kong’s Yuan Jinlin 袁锦麟 [Alan Yuen] – a regular writer for director Chen Musheng 陈木胜 [Benny Chan] (Rob-B-Hood 宝贝计划, 2006; Connected 保持通话, 2008; Shaolin 新少林寺, 2011) as well as writer-director of Firestorm 风暴 (2013) – is episodic, formulaic and not especially well-constructed, with no overriding story arc and some large gaps in continuity. The drama only really catches fire in the banquet finale, and the human action, heavily dependent on traditional (and not especially slick) wire-work, is unremarkable by present-day standards of martial-arts fantasies.

There’s more human inter-action here than in, say, the VFX-swamped The Monkey King 西游记之大闹天空 (2014), but a lot of it is standard stuff: Hong Kong’s Zeng Zhiwei 曾志伟 [Eric Tsang] and Wu Junru 吴君如 [Sandra Ng] show up for their normal schtick, Mainlanders Yan Ni 闫妮 and Bao Jianfeng 保剑锋 make a strangely mild impression as a childless rich couple caught up in the shenanigans, and Tang Wei 汤唯 almost none at all in a pawnbroker role that should have been played by someone 20 years older. As a monster bounty-hunter, Jiang Wu 姜武 is okay but his character never seems to strike sparks; ditto for Taiwan veteran Jin Yanling 金燕玲, whose engagingly absent-minded grandmother keeps showing up here and there but often seems superfluous to the story. Among the supporting roles, only comedienne Yao Chen 姚晨, in a setpiece as a master chef, really energises her material in a genuine star turn.

The film works thanks to one lead performance – that of China’s fastest-rising actress Bai Baihe 白百何, 31, in her first costume and action role as a low-grade but spunky monster-hunter who teams up with the hopeless hero who’s been impregnated with a royal monster foetus. As the latter, 26-year-old Mainland singer-actor Jing Boran 井柏然 (Up in the Wind 等风来, 2013; Rise of the Legend 黄飞鸿  英雄有梦, 2014) is okay but no more, not really managing to elevate a weakling role to that of a real hero. It’s left to Bai to give the film some wit, charm and real human perspective, and she’s magical in a part that, on paper, would not seem to fit her skill set, which has so far been largely limited to engaging rom-coms.

Aside from the CG animation, technical contributions are okay without being very special, from the widescreen photography by Hong Kong’s Pan Yaoming 潘耀明 [Anthony Pun] to the rich but unflashy production design by Japan’s experienced Taneda Yohei 种田阳平, who since The Flowers of War 金陵十三钗 (2011) has gravitated towards Chinese-language productions (Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale 赛德克•巴莱, 2011; The Assassins 铜雀台, 2012). Though the film was largely funded by Mainland sources and has a majority Mainland cast, it has more the feel of a Hong Kong production shot in China thanks to the largely offshore crew – and not just because the script even manages to squeeze a majiang game into the story.

The film originally finished shooting by early 2014 but, while readying the film for release in CNY 2015, the lead actor, Taiwan actor-singer Ke Zhendong 柯震东, was involved in the Fang Zuming 房祖名 [Jaycee Chan] drugs scandal of autumn 2014. As a result, all his scenes were re-shot with replacement actor Jing and the visual effects redone, reportedly for an extra cost of RMB70 million, pushing the final budget to RMB350 million. During the extensive re-shooting in Feb-Mar 2015, the cameo roles by Tang and Yao were added, and Bai, who was initially not at ease acting for visual effects, basically got a second chance at her role. It’s a tribute to the film’s technical crew that material from the two shooting periods merges so seamlessly.

CREDITS

Presented by Dream Sky Film (CN), BDI Films (CN), Shenzhen Tencent Video Culture Communication (CN), Heyi Pictures (CN), Beijing Union Pictures (CN), Zhejiang Star River Artiste Management (CN), San-Le Films (CN), Zhejiang Films & TV (Group) (CN), Edko Films (HK), Edko (Beijing) Films (CN). Produced by Champion Star Pictures (HK).

Script: Yuan Jinlin [Alan Yuen]. Photography: Pan Yaoming [Anthony Pun]. Editing: Zhang Jiahui. Music: Gao Shizhang. Production design: Taneda Yohei. Art direction: Li Jianwei. Costume design: Xi Zhongwen [Yee Chung-man]. Sound: Zeng Jingxiang, Randy Thom. Action: Gu Xuanzhao. Visual effects: Jason Snell, Pan Guoyu, Tang Bingbing, Jessica Yang (Industrial Light & Magic, Base Fx).

Cast: Bai Baihe (Huo Xiaolan), Jing Boran (Song Tianyin), Jiang Wu (Luo Gang), Jin Yanling [Elaine Jin] (Song Tianyin’s grandmother), Zhong Hanliang [Wallace Chung] (Ge Qianhu), Zeng Zhiwei [Eric Tsang] (Zhugao), Wu Junru [Sandra Ng] (Fat Ying), Tang Wei (pawnshop owner), Yao Chen (Heaven Restaurant chief chef), Yan Ni (Luo Ying), Bao Jianfeng (Zheng Tao, Luo Ying’s husband), Wang Yuexin (Xiaowu), Guo Xiaodong (Song Daitian, Song Tianyin’s father), Li Jingjing (Auntie Li), Cindy Tian (Xiaoyu), Zhang Yuexuan (Xiaotian), Cheng Taishen (Uncle Dong), Liu Chunxia (Auntie Mo), Zhou Pinrui (Niuniu), Kang Kai (chef).

Release: Hong Kong, 16 Jul 2015; China, 16 Jul 2015.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 30 Sep 2015.)