Legend of the Ancient Sword
古剑奇谭之流月昭明
China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins.
Director: Renny Harlin.
Rating: 5/10.
Utterly generic fantasy martial-arts outing just about qualifies as a children’s movie.
STORY
Ancient China. In decadent Floating Moon City, while searching for yanjia 偃甲 arts master Xie Yi (Gao Shengyuan), a robotics specialist who’s been missing for some years, Yue Wuyi (Wang Lihong), a young martial artist from Chang’an city, buys Xie Yi’s ring at a public auction. After beating off challenges by two other martial artists, Xia Yize (Gao Yixiang) and Wenren Yu (Song Qian), he teams up with them against the city’s ruler (Ji Huanbo) who tries to obtain the ring. The three are rescued by the sudden appearance of Xie Yi, who whisks them away in his Bamboo Bun flying ship, captained by giant panda Tuanzi. Floating Moon City’s evil high priest Shen Ye (Zhang Zhilin) is planning an attack on Chang’an, using a giant Magic Tree which can be destroyed only by the Sword of Enlightenment. Xie Yi has dedicated himself to reforging the sword, which is now shattered in four pieces, of which one part is his ring. The last piece lies in The Deep, beneath the South Sea, whose portal is due to open tomorrow. While Yue Wuyi and Wenren Yu fight off an attack by one of Floating Moon City’s flying ships, Xia Yize goes to retrieve some sword shards from Ruan (Wu Qianyu), who lives in another dimension in a scroll painting. When Xia Yize and Ruan eventually return, they and their companions discover that the person they thought was Xie Yi is actually a robot made by him. They journey on to The Deep, where more monsters and surprises await them.
REVIEW
Just about passable as a children’s film but blah as a piece of adult entertainment, Legend of the Ancient Sword 古剑奇谭之流月昭明 is the second Chinese outing by Finnish-born, US-based veteran director Renny Harlin after the Cheng Long 成龙 [Jackie Chan] vehicle Skiptrace 绝地逃亡 (2016). This time Harlin has essayed a 100% Chinese-speaking genre rather than an international action-buddy movie but the results are equally formulaic and his direction just as mechanical. On the plus side, things jog along at a nifty pace, and at its best the film is vaguely reminiscent of 1980s Hong Kong action movies with the challenges and fights coming thick and fast. But that’s hardly enough to justify this otherwise corny mega-mash of humans, eternals, robots, monsters and cuddly CG animals, with a giant evil tree thrown in for good measure.
Based on a 3-D role-playing game – Legend of the Ancient Sword II 古剑奇谭二 永夜初晗凝碧天, published in 2013 and written by Gong Wei 汞玮, Feng Ge 凤歌 and Shao Yun 邵芸 – the script by Hong Kong journeyman Tan Guangyuan 谭广源 (who’s done several films for Chen Jiashang 陈嘉上 [Gordon Chan]) and the Mainland’s Huang Huihui 黄慧惠 (who worked with Tan on okay horror The House That Never Dies II 京城81号II, 2017) is a back-of-a-coaster job about the hunt for a magic sword that will beat a nasty and his giant evil tree. Tan and Huang recycle all the staples of the effects-heavy, fantasy martial-arts movie without adding anything new. The 20-minute opening sequence, set entirely in a vast set representing Floating Moon City’s marketplace, immediately tells viewers what they’re in for – a VFX extravaganza with heroes, giant monsters and (cute-ish) robots, set vaguely in a steampunk Ancient China.
The leads are simple cut-outs – a jokey hero, a spunky heroine and a saturnine mystery man, later joined by a graceful beauty. And though Chinese American actor-singer Wang Lihong 王力宏 – now 42 but made up to look 10 years younger – and Mainland K popster-turned-actress Song Qian 宋茜 (My New Sassy Girl 엽기적인 그녀 2, 2016) try their hardest as the first two, it’s all acting by numbers, with onetime dancer Song’s legs thrown in as a nice distraction. As the mystery man and the ethereal beauty, Taiwan’s Gao Yixiang 高以翔 and Chinese-French Wu Qianyu 吴千语 get by more on looks than personality. Hong Kong actor-singer Zhang Zhilin 张智霖 [Julian Cheung] is typically wooden as the villainous high priest, while Mainland sexpot Liu Yan 柳岩 smoulders away while chained to the giant tree.
VFX range from good to corny (not that it really matters) with just one imaginative moment – Gao’s character climbing into another dimension through a lake’s surface. Finnish composer Lasse Enersen’s utterly generic orchestral score thunders away in the background to little effect.
After the surprise success of Skiptrace, which hawled in a hunky RMB890 million in the Mainland, Legend crashed and burned as a National Day release with a risible RMB14 million. Harlin has a third Chinese film awaiting release, contemporary crime drama Bodies at Rest 沉默的证人, starring Hong Kong’s Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Nick Cheung], Mainland actress Yang Zi 杨紫 (psychodrama Insistence 守株人, 2012) and Taiwan actor-singer Ren Xianqi 任贤齐 [Richie Ren].
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Tao Piao Piao Movie & TV Culture (CN), Bona Film Group (CN), Zhujiang Pictures (CN), Youku Movies (CN).
Script: Tan Guangyuan, Huang Huihui. Computer game: Gong Wei, Feng Ge, Shao Yun. Music: Lasse Enersen. Art direction: Liu Shiyun. Sound: Kaikangwol Rungsakorn. Action: Qin Pengfei. Visual effects: Wil Manning, Gim Nam-shik.
Cast: Wang Lihong (Yue Wuyi), Song Qian (Wenren Yu), Gao Yixiang (Xia Yize), Gao Shengyuan [Archie Kao] (Xie Yi; Chu Qi), Wu Qianyu (Ruan), Zhang Zhilin [Julian Cheung] (Shen Ye), Liu Yan (Cang Ming), Wu Jiacheng (young Yue Wuyi), Na Wei (auctioneer), Ji Huanbo (Floating Moon City ruler).
Release: China, 1 Oct 2018.