Xuan Yuan: The Great Emperor
轩辕大帝
China, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 3-D, 90 mins.
Director: Li Xiaojun 李晓军.
Rating: 5/10.
Action-cum-ethnographic study centred on China’s mythical first emperor is just so-so.
STORY
Northern China, about 4,800 years ago. In a contest of warriors of the Youxiong tribe in crossing the churning Ji river, only Ji Di (Yu Bo) succeeds. He travels for 20 days and reaches the prosperous and peaceful Shennong tribe, a more highly developed society, to exchange his belongings for salt, grain and linen. In an attack by the fierce Youli tribe, led by the giant Chi You (Sudeng Zhamusu), Ji Di helps a group of Shennong refugees, including the tribe’s old chief Jiang Yan (Wang Deshun). But Chi You and his woman summon up wild animals to attack the group. Ji Di manages to escape and is rescued by Lei (Zhou Weitong), of the Xiling Luming tribe, who is looking after some deer. The two become lovers and he takes her back with him to where the Youxiong tribe lives, near Juci mountain. In the meantime, the survivors of the Shennong refugee group have also arrived there and been granted some land to cultivate. When Ji Di arrives with Lei, a young Youxiong woman, Mo (Ban Jiajia), who’s always liked him, throws a tantrum until Ji Di finally agrees to her also becoming his woman. After discovering how to harden clay walls by baking them, Ji Di builds a defensive wall round the Youxiong community. But while he and the young men are out hunting, the Youli, led by Chi You, manage to take over the place. Mo gives birth to a child but Lei, also pregnant, is kidnapped; she is freed, however, by Chi You who wants Ji Di and his warriors to surrender. A battle between the two sides takes place but Chi You proves indestructible. However, Ji Di, Mo, Jiang Yan and others manage to escape across the Ji river and plan their revenge.
REVIEW
Shot in 2012 on a reported budget of RMB60 million, Xuan Yuan: The Great Emperor 轩辕大帝 is a big chunk of pre-history that can’t make up its mind whether it’s a 3-D action-adventure spectacular (with lots of CG wild animals) or an ethnographic study of how Chinese civilisation began. Acceptably put together, and in the later stages quite involving on a human level, it still doesn’t meet the challenge of turning a mythical character (the so-called Yellow Emperor 皇帝) into a dramatically compulsive one, thanks to a bitty script.
Journeyman director Li Xiaojun 李晓军 is a member of the so-called Fifth Generation that graduated from Beijing Film Academy in the early 1980s, after which he joined August First Film Studio, working on war movies and (more recently) TV dramas. His most notable credit is the interesting drama Army Nurse 女儿楼 (1985), co-directed (or reportedly, taken over) by his classmate Hu Mei 胡玫 (Far from War 远离战争的年代, 1987; Confucius 孔子, 2010). In Xuan Yuan, Li’s direction is competent and free of any stodginess; the weakest aspect is his screenplay, which is full of narrative gaps and leaps (like a cut-down TV drama) and poorly structured as a piece of storytelling. It’s stronger on ethnographic detail and, in the final stages, cultural ra-ra like the main hero inventing everything from writing to irrigation.
Despite the rocky script, the actors do manage to carve out some sympathetic characters, with 40-year-old Yu Bo 于波 (Saving General Yang 忠烈杨家将, 2013; Time to Love 新步步惊心, 2015) balancing ruggedness and charm as Ji Di, and two ethnic-minority actress-models, Zhou Weitong 周韦彤 (Love Studio 同城邂逅, 2016) and the livelier Ban Jiajia 班嘉佳 (EX-Files 前任攻略, 2014) as his women, the first calm and mature, the second more of a sulky tomboy. Veteran Wang Deshun 王德顺 (Miss Granny 重返20岁, 2015) contributes some heft as an aged tribal chief, but it’s Inner Mongolian actor Sudeng Zhamusu 苏登扎木苏, as the Goliath-like villain of the piece, whose performance morphs the most, from a feral force of nature to a kind of big softie.
On the technical side, the widescreen photography by Wang Weidong 王卫东 is well-appointed, especially when it comes to the more majestic scenery – the movie was shot in Guizhou province – and the visual effects by South Korea’s Next Visual Studio for all the wild animals (bear, wolves, leopards, snake, deer, eagle) are acceptable without being in any way notable. A climactic battle at the hour mark is staged with an entertaining mixture of gore, humour and Stone Age single-mindedness.
STORY
Presented by China Film (CN), Beijing Gold Mileage Art & Cultural (CN).
Script: Li Xiaojun. Photography: Wang Weidong. Editing: Liu Qing. Music: Ruan Kunshen. Art direction: Yu Maiduo. Costumes: Wu Jian. Styling: Huang Hua. Sound: Tao Jing. Visual effects: Next Visual Studio.
Cast: Yu Bo (Ji Di), Wang Deshun (Jiang Yan), Sudeng Zhamusu (Chi You), Zhou Weitong (Lei), Ban Jiajia (Mo), Li Wei (Ji Shan), Li Qian (Leader of Beasts), Li Zimo (You Li), Zhao Nanyang (Jiang Lie), Zhou Kaiwen (Ling), Li Qilong (Ji Feng).
Release: China, 1 Apr 2016.