Jade Dynasty I

诛仙I

China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 100 mins.

Director: Cheng Xiaodong 程小东 [Tony Ching].

Rating: 6/10.

Costume martial-arts fantasy has an agreeably light tone and strong characters before the VFX take over.

STORY

Ancient China. Orphaned as a child when his village was massacred by the Ghost King, Zhang Xiaofan (Xiao Zhan) has been raised by the Qingyun sect on Dazhu peak for the past decade. The sect is run by Tian Buyi (Qiu Xinzhi) and his wife Su Ru, whose daughter Tian Ling’er (Tang Yixin) has helped to train Zhang Xiaofan in the martial arts and for whom he’s developed a secret liking she’s unaware of. Despite this, Zhang Xiaofan is not considered one of the sect’s official disciples, of whom there are six; instead, his duties involve cleaning and cooking. On the 10th anniversary of his parents’ death, Tian Ling’er takes Zhang Xiaofan down the mountain to his home village, Caomiao, where he relives the event. Back in the mountains, Zhang Xiaofan, along with pupils from other peaks, spy on the beautiful Lu Xueqi (Li Qin) – chief pupil of Daoist master Shuiyue (Ye Tong) of Xiaozhu peak – practising aerial moves with her female colleagues. The stern Lu Xueqi catches Zhang Xiaofan and punishes him with itchy bugs. When he was still a boy, Zhang Xiaofan was given a magic stone by a Daoist immortal (Jiang Dawei) and told to keep it with him at all times; occasionally it glows but Zhang Xiaofan is still puzzled as to its significance. It is, in fact, the Blood-Devouring Pearl 噬血珠 and one day, while playing around with a pesky monkey, he accidentally activates the stone with drops of his own blood. It morphs spectacularly into the Fire Stick 火棍, a powerful weapon which answers only to him. However, it’s coveted by the Ghost King and by a mysterious young woman, Biyao (Meng Meiqi), who keeps trying to steal it – unsuccessfully – from the ingenuous Zhang Xiaofan, for whom she slowly falls.

REVIEW

It’s been eight years since the last directorial outing by Cheng Xiaodong 程小东 [Tony Ching] – the entertaining but unexceptional costume fantasy Its Love 白蛇传说 (2011, aka The Sorcerer and the White Snake) – but, now 65, the Hong Kong stunt coordinator-cum-director has lost none of his energy on the evidence of Jade Dynasty I 诛仙I. A familiar mix of martial-arts fantasy and copious CGI, it’s based on an epic eight-volume novel of the same Chinese title by Mainland author Xiao Ding 萧鼎 (pen name of Fuzhou-born Zhang Jian 张戬) that was first published in Taiwan in 2003 and then in the Mainland two years later (see cover, left), and has already spawned a hit Mainland drama series, The Legend of Chusen 青云志 (2016, aka Noble Aspirations, see below left). With an almost 100% new cast, and only 100 minutes to deploy it in, Cheng’s big-screen version moves smartly, packs in a huge number of characters but manages to let the principals shine before the CGI takes over in the final furlong. First-weekend business has been brisk in the Mainland. [Final tally was just over RMB400 million, strong without being a major hit.]

It’s a typically professional but not especially involving production by Cheng, who’s still firing on all pistons after 40-odd years in the industry. Like Its Love, the film is Mainland-financed but with major Hong Kong input behind the camera. Apart from a rather amateurish start, the action is solid, oldstyle Hong Kong stuff, co-staged by Mainland-born veteran Xiong Xinxin 熊欣欣 and mixing wire effects with CGI, usually to smooth effect. As in Its Love, editing by experienced Hong Kong cutter Lin An’er 林安儿 [Angie Lam] hardly wastes a scene, and styling by Xi Zhongwen 奚仲文 [Yee Chung-man] has a lightness and brightness matching the misty-peaks setting. Of especial note is the score by young Hong Kong classical musician Zhu Yunbian 朱芸编 (Wu Kong 悟空传, 2017; computer animated mega-hit Ne Zha 哪吒之魔童降世, 2019), which avoids the usual action wallpapering and has some genuinely wistful moments (with Chinese harmonies) in the orchestration.

So far, so fairly standard for an action costume fantasy. So, too, the screenplay, bolted together scene by scene with functional skill by Mainlander Shen Jie 申捷, who’s mostly done TVDs outside a handful of movie credits (e.g. costume drama The Warring States 战国, 2011). There’s precious little dramatic arc, and the second half becomes little more than a series of fight sequences interspersed by plot veers. But the casting raises everything a good notch, with Mainland boybander Xiao Zhan 肖战, 27, in his first major film role, equally adept at looking innocent and ingenuous as his TV counterpart Li Yifeng 李易峰, and sensibly not getting in the way of the three super-women in his character’s life – played with gusto by perky singer Meng Meiqi 孟美岐 (especially), elegant opera performer-turned-actress Li Qin 李沁 and (the only carry-over from the TV series) Tang Yixin 唐艺昕, 29, as the girl he carries a torch for.

The four young leads contribute a lot to the film’s generally light, bouncy tone – especially in the first, character-building half – while the rich supporting cast, peppered with Hong Kong veterans like Ye Tong 叶童 [Cecilia Yip] glowering as an ambitious master and Jiang Dawei 姜大卫 [David Chiang] and Xu Shaoqiang 徐少强 as venerable Daoist elders, bring some meat to the table. Taiwan’s Qiu Xinzhi 邱心志, 51, is also very simpatico as the young lead’s kindly master. Hong Kong d.p. Chen Weinian 陈伟年 (My War 我的战争, 2016; The Big Call 猜猜我是谁, 2017) frames the whole thing in towering, cloud-wreathed landscapes, with brief moments of poetry such as Li’s character practising aerial-silk moves with her companions.

CREDITS

Presented by New Classics Pictures (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN).

Script: Shen Jie, Song Chaoyun. Novel: Xiao Ding. Photography: Chen Weinian. Editing: Lin An’er [Angie Lam]. Music: Zhu Yunbian. Art direction: Liu Minxiong [Ben Lau]. Styling: Xi Zhongwen [Yee Chung-man], Li Zhou. Action: Cheng Xiaodong [Tony Ching], Xiong Xinxin, Wu Zequan. Visual effects: Annie Ng (VHQ Media).

Cast: Xiao Zhan (Zhang Xiaofan), Li Qin (Lu Xueqi), Meng Meiqi (Biyao), Tang Yixin (Tian Ling’er), Qiu Xinzhi (Tian Buyi), Ye Tong [Cecilia Yip] (Shuiyue, Daoist master), Jiang Dawei [David Chiang] (Daoxuan, Daoist immortal), Xu Shaoqiang (Cangsong, Daoist master), Liang Jiaren (Zeng Shuchang), Bao Xiaosong (Shang Zhengliang), Chen Liwei (Tianyun, Daoist master), Li Shen (Lin Jingyu, Zhang Xiaofan’s childhood friend), Li Xinyue (You Ji).

Release: China, 13 Sep 2019.