Xuan Zang

大唐玄奘

China/India, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 118 mins.

Director: Huo Jianqi 霍建起.

Rating: 6/10.

Stunningly shot but dramatically patchy version of the Buddhist monk’s epic journey from China to India.

STORY

Mumbai, 2016. A student in Mumbai University’s library asks for a copy of the 1870 book The Ancient Geography of India, by Alexander Cunningham (Jonathan Kos-Read), and reads how his excavations were aided by the writings of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang. In Aug AD 627, Xuanzang (Huang Xiaoming) was continuing to study Buddhism and learn Sanskrit in Chang’an (modern Xi’an), the capital of the Tang dynasty. Feeling a calling to travel to the Indian subcontinent and bring back copies of original Buddhist scriptures, he sets out on a solo journey westwards. Foreign travel is banned because the country is at war with neighbours, but Xuanzang convinces Li Daliang (Xu Zheng), the governor of Liangzhou, to let him cross the border, despite the dangers ahead. In Guazhou, he gets the same advice from governor Li Chang (Luo Jin), who says he’ll never manage to cross the Taklimakan Desert, even if he makes it that far. After travelling with a Silk Road merchant (Jin Rong) and then a helpful girl (Lou Jiayue), he reaches the verdant scenery of the Hulu River, where he attracts a disciple, Shi Pantuo (Purba Rgyal). However, after a while he can’t stand the pace and leaves Xuanzang to travel on alone. Xuanzang again meets the same girl, whose father donates an old horse to him. At a beacon tower on the edge of the desert, he has discussions with the commander, Wang Xiang (Tan Kai), who is longing to return to Chang’an after seven years in the wilderness. Crossing the giant Taklimakan Desert, Xuanzang almost dies of thirst, goes mad, and is rescued by his horse, finally reaching Yiwu in 629. He is warned by the Aratürük king (Jiang Chao) not to visit the neighbouring Karakhajo Kingdon. However, the Karakhajo king (Lian Kai) persuades Xuanzang to stay several months to school him in Buddhism; when Xuanzang insists on moving on, the king tries to persuade him otherwise but finally sends him on with an escort. After more adventures, Xuanzang finally reaches Nalanda Temple in India in Aug 631. After five years of further education, he goes on a study tour of the country and returns to Nalanda in 639. By 642 he feels ready to return home, arriving in Chang’an in 645, where he is effusively welcomed by the emperor and people.

REVIEW

Enthusiasts of Buddhist history and of Mainland actor Huang Xiaoming 黄晓明 get plenty of both in Xuan Zang 大唐玄奘, which recreates the titular monk’s 25,000-kilometre roundtrip to India to bring back some holy scriptures to Tang-dynasty China. Best known as the colourless monk in the much-filmed fantasy novel Journey to the West 西游记, written a millennium later, Xuanzang was actually a well-documented person from the 7th century AD, not that you’d realise it from the bland screenplay here. Still, with little real drama on screen, non-believers can at least sit back and admire the scenery – two hours of jaw-dropping widescreen photography in Gansu and Xinjiang provinces, plus India itself, by d.p. Sun Ming 孙明 and aerial d.p. Nie Yunxing 聂运兴 that alone is worth the price of admission.

The prestige project – loaded with advisors and venerable priests in the credits – is the first official China-India co-production under the agreement signed in 2014, and was meant to open simultaneously in the two countries. (In the event it has so far opened only in China, where it grossed a weedy RMB33 million.) The whole undertaking was entrusted to the safe hands of Mainland director Huo Jianqi 霍建起, 58, whose films have always had a strongly picturesque element (Postman in the Mountains 那人那山那狗, 1998; Nuan 暖, 2003; A Time to Love 情人结, 2004) and who can be relied on to turn in a respectable, good-looking product. Unfortunately, his films have become thinner and thinner on real drama, with his last movie, Love in the 1980s 1980年代的爱情 (2015), simply a pretty (and pretty boring) nostalgia piece. Xuan Zang is an easier sit than that, but largely thanks to its travelogue/ethnological aspects.

After a pointless, five-minute introduction – in which a modern-day Indian student at Mumbai University researches 19th-century British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham, who unearthed sites described in the pilgrimage – the film zeroes in on Xuanzang himself but skips his childhood and adolescence (actually in a well-connected Confucian household) to join him in his mid-20s. By this time, Xuanzang is already a monk studying in Chang’an (modern-day Xi’an), the capital of Tang dynasty China, and with minimal discussion he sets off on a solo pilgrimage to India to bring back some Urtexts of disputed Buddhist scriptures. As the journey is perilous – both topographically and politically – he’s regularly met by authorities who first advise him not to continue but then resign themselves to his steely determination. That, plus others he meets en route (a wannabe disciple, a mysterious beauty), is what passes for structure in the screenplay by Zou Jingzhi 邹静之, a writer in his mid-60s who worked on Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles 千里走单骑 (2005) and Coming Home 归来 (2014) – both directed by Zhang Yimou 张艺谋 – as well as on The Grandmaster 一代宗师 (2013) by Wang Jiawei 王家卫 [Wong Kar-wai], who’s credited here with “artistic advice”. (Zou also wrote the rather less meritorious My Kingdom 大武生, 2011, and cartoon Legend of a Rabbit 兔侠传奇, 2011.)

Most of Xuanzang’s encounters are quite engrossing, thanks to the casting: well-known comedian Xu Zheng 徐峥 (Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧, 2012) plays the first with a quiet irony, TV actor Luo Jin 罗晋 brings a piercing intensity to the next one, Tibetan actor Purba Rgyal 蒲巴甲 some lightness as a wannabe disciple, Tan Kai 谭凯 (the smacked-out middleman in Drug War 毒战, 2012) a rugged masculinity to a border commander, and so on. But they’re still only brief moments of character interplay between acres of travelogue, and all end the same way – with Xuanzang continuing his journey, unaffected by the guest stars’ worldly cares. Once Xuanzang finally arrives in India, at the 68-minute mark, the film is robbed of even that structure, as our hero settles down for some serious studying and touring for the next 40 minutes, with a whole new cast of Indian actors.

Given the need to have a star in the title role, and one who can project a strong sense of conviction, Huang is an excellent choice, all firm jaw and intense gaze. Though he doesn’t get much chance to build a personality for Xuanzang outside his Buddhist platitudes, Huang does manage to carry the film on his shoulders – no mean undertaking given its size, stunning land- and cloudscapes, and the fact that the movie is virtually a panorama of life in 7th-century China and Central Asia. It’s up there alongside his best performances, such as An Inaccurate Memoir 匹夫 (2012), American Dreams in China 中国合伙人 (2013) and The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom 白发魔女传之明月天国 (2014).

Aside from the photography, other technical credits are equally tip-top, from the inspirational Chinese score by Wang Xiaofeng 王晓锋 to the varied production design and styling realised on the massive stages of Hengdian World Studios, south of Shanghai. According to the end credits, the film is partly based on the script Xuan Zang 玄奘 by Xue Keqiao 薛克翘 and Mu Jun 木君 and partly on the book Xuan Zang in Great Tang 大唐玄奘 by Buddhist priest Xinhai 心海.

CREDITS

Presented by China Film (CN), Beijing Xin Hai Buddhistic Cultural Exchanges Centre (CN). Produced by China Film (CN), Beijing Xin Hai Buddhistic Cultural Exchanges Centre (CN), China Movie Channel (CN), Beijing Gehua CATV Network (CN), Huace Pictures (CN), Universal Howshou Film (CN), China Investment Financial Holdings Fund Management (CN), Eros International Media (IN), Peacock Mountain Culture & Media (CN), Talent International Film (IN).

Script: Zou Jingzhi. Photography: Sun Ming. Aerial photography: Nie Yunxing. Editing: Cao Wenjie. Music: Wang Xiaofeng. End titles song: Du Wei. Vocal: Wang Fei. Production design: Wu Ming. Art direction: Wang Jinguo, Sun Jingbo (China), Sandeep Ravade (India). Styling: He Qian. Sound: Chao Jun. Action: Zhang Jinghua (China), Amar Shetty (India). Weather effects: Wu Ruifeng. Visual effects: Zheng Wei (Pixomondo). Artistic advice: Wang Jiawei [Wong Kar-wai]. Executive direction: Jiang Yu.

Cast: Huang Xiaoming (Xuanzang), Xu Zheng (Li Daliang, Liangzhou governor), Purba Rgyal (Shi Pantuo), Luo Jin (Li Chang, Guazhou governor), Lian Kai (Ju Wentai, Karakhajo king), Tan Kai (Wang Xiang), Jin Rong [Vivian Dawson] (Wu Qing, Silk Road merchant), Jonathan Kos-Read (Alexander Cunningham), Jiang Chao (Aratürük king), Che Xiao (Xuanzang’s mother), Lou Jiayue (girl in Western Region), Gao Xing (Karakhajo queen), Zhao Wenxuan [Winston Chao] (Emperor Taizong of Tang), Tang Zhenye (Mucha Judou), Wang Huichun (Zhiyan), Zhao Liang (imperial edict reader), Ram Gopal Bajaj (Shilabhadra, Nalanda head priest), Sonu Sood (Harsha, king), Mandana Karimi (Harsha’s sister), Neha Sharma (Kumari, Jayaram’s wife), Ali Fazal (Jayaram), Rajesh Khera (Simharsami), Prithvi Zutshi (Juewu, senior Buddhist priest), Sanjay Gurbaxani (Mingxian, senior Buddhist priest), Karim Hajee (Haihui, senior Buddhist priest), Sharan Pal Singh (Zhiguang, senior Buddhist priest), Sishir Sharma (Ramnath), Fang Zheng (Dameng), Liu Weisen (Liaokong), Zhou Yutong (Zhengyan), Sang Xianfu (Yinian), Huang Deyi (Jinghui).

Release: China, 29 Apr 2016; India, tba.