Mojin: The Worm Valley
云南虫谷
China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 3-D, 109 mins.
Director: Fei Xing 非行.
Rating: 5/10.
Tomb-hunting action-adventure starts OK but soon becomes repetitive and seriously lightweight.
STORY
China, seemingly in the 1970s. Using clues discovered in the Dragon Bone Celestial Book 龙骨天书, the tomb-robbing team of Hu Bayi (Cai Heng), his old army pal Wang Kaixuan, aka Fatty (Yu Heng), and Chinese American archaeologist Shirley Yang (Gu Xuan) – the self-styled Mojin Captains – sets out to find the 1,000-year-old Muchen Orb 雮尘珠 in Xianwang’s Tomb and which, when united with the Book, will cure the Ghosteye Curse of evil queen Jingjue which has been passed down through the ages. The trio are joined by veteran professor Sun Xuewu (Cheng Taishen), Wang Kaixuan’s girlfriend Zhou Linglong (Chen Yusi) and his light-hearted friend Gold Tooth (Ma Yuke). Before leaving for Yunnan province, southern China, Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang visit veteran explorer Chen Yulou (Tuo Zonghua), who went looking for the Muchen Orb 30 years ago and is now blind in a mental asylum. On their way to Hidden Dragon Mountain in Yunnan, the road is blocked by a rock fall, so they walk to the home of Caiyun (Xu Lu), an old friend of Hu Bayi, and her daughter Kongque (Zhu Yun’er). Kongque’s flirtatious behaviour with Hu Bayi annoys Shirley Yang but she gets over it. Kongque also introduces the team to the flameflies – a deadly variant of fireflies – that swarm the area at night. Next day she leads the team to the underground river that goes into the valley in which the tomb is located. En route they are attacked by viperfish but survive. In the valley they are next attacked by giant lizards but escape onto the Floating Island above the valley floor, thereby avoiding the poisonous gas that fills the valley after dark. After resting there for a day, they descend into the valley and reach Snake Coil Mountain, with its hanging coffins, on top of which is Xianwang’s Tomb. But then they’re attacked by giant scorpions.
REVIEW
After a gap of five years, musician-turned-writer/director Fei Xing 非行, 48, returns to the big screen with his third feature, Mojin: The Worm Valley 云南虫谷, a tomb-robbing action-adventure that’s passably entertaining in its first half but a major let-down after his fascinating genre-bender The Man behind the Courtyard House 守望者 罪恶迷途 (2011) and the superbly crafted crime/courtroom procedural Silent Witness 全民目击 (2013), one of the finest Mainland films of the past decade. Originally planned as part of a trilogy of movies from the novels by Tianxia Bachang 天下霸唱 (pen-name of Zhang Muye 张牧野), to be released in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Valley finally emerged at the end of 2018 and flopped with a weedy RMB150 million, not even surpassing the disappointing take for Witness (RMB181 million). It’ll be fascinating to see where the Anhui-born film-maker (real name Li Wenbing 李文兵) goes from here.
The screenplay by Fei Xing and actor-director Gu Haoran 顾浩然 is very loosely based on Yunnan Chonggu 云南虫谷 (“Yunnan Worm Valley”), the third of eight novels in the Ghost Blows Out the Light 鬼吹灯 series that were originally published online. (The novel was published in book form in 2006, see cover, left.) The film is also the third claiming a relationship to Zhang’s series, following Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe 九层妖塔 (2015), which claimed to be based on the first novel, and Mojin: The Lost Legend 寻龙诀 (2015), essentially a totally invented story. Where Chronicles was basically a monster VFX-athon and Legend more tomb-raider-ish, Valley is a bit of both.
While using the three main adventurers – hero Hu Bayi, old army pal Wang Kaixuan/Fatty and Chinese American archaeologist Shirley Yang, who make up the Mojin (“touching gold”) Captains 摸金校尉 – the script adds three more to the team: a middle-aged professor, Wang Kaixuan’s cute girlfriend, and comic relief Gold Tooth. Their self-appointed task: to retrieve the 1,000-year-old Muchen Orb from the tomb of Xianwang and unite it with the Dragon Bone Celestial Book to lift a curse that has been passed down in the form of a shoulder scar that afflicts some of the team. Of the many changes to the original novel, perhaps the most fundamental is changing the location of the tomb from under water to the top of a mountain, completely altering the story’s physical dynamics.
Given the liberties taken by the other two movies, one shouldn’t be too harsh on Fei Xing. As an action-adventure Valley does have its own internal logic, moving from the assembly of the six-member team and the gathering of clues to the tomb’s location in Yunnan province; through some overnight bonding at a country lodge, where they play around with a form of firefly that returns in the finale; to the entry into the valley via an underground river; and then to battles with various monsters en route to the Muchen Orb. The first half-hour, in fact, has a light, playful tone that’s very appealing: romantic frissons between four of the team, a scenery-chewing guest role by Taiwan character actor Tuo Zonghua 庹宗华 (Godspeed 一路顺风, 2016) as a former explorer who’s now a batty old blind lecher in a loonybin, plus colourful evocations of the Yunnan setting by art director Zhao Yu 赵宇, stylist Liang Tingting 梁婷婷 and Hong Kong d.p. Chen Zhiying 陈志英 (Buddies in India 大闹天竺, 2017; Fat Buddies 胖子行动队, 2018). The setting seems to be kind of 1970s with a 1920-ish flavour.
It’s soon after the team enter the valley and the real monsters start to appear (giant lizards, giant scorpions, a ginormous snake) that the film starts to become repetitive and tread water dramatically. There’s little conflict, partly because there’s no villain or any other competitors for the prize, and partly because the characters remain very lightweight, never developing any individual stature or ensemble chemistry. The decision not to use any big names (unlike the other two films) also rebounds. Despite long locks and a goatee, TV’s Cai Heng 蔡珩, a former ballet dancer, makes a pallid and humourless Hu Bayi, lacking the charisma of Chronicles‘ Zhao Youting 赵又廷 [Mark Chao] and Legend‘s Chen Kun 陈坤. As the archaeologist-cum-archer who seems to have a limitless supply of arrows in her quiver, foxy dancer-turned-actress Gu Xuan 顾璇 (the evil queen in Once upon a Time 三生三世十里桃花, 2017) starts strongly but doesn’t develop any of the mature star quality shown by actresses Yao Chen 姚晨 and Shu Qi 舒淇 in the same role.
Most notable among the supports is veteran character actor Cheng Taishen 成泰燊, 50, as the middle-aged professor, but he’s capable of much better (Good Earth 大地, 2009; Ma Wen’s Battle 马文的战争, 2010; Tell Me a Beautiful World 说说美丽世界, 2013) than this pipe-smoking cut-out. The lack of real personality among the cast is summed up by the team’s dim cutie (Chen Yusi 陈雨锶), who uses a hand catapult against huge monsters and then gets the most embarrassing death scene in recent memory.
Visual effects by South Koreans are OK, without being top-notch, but the monsters have no personality beyond being targets for the humans, as well as being very stupid. The copious orchestral score by Fei Xing’s regular composer, Yang Zhuoxin 杨卓鑫, is above average for this kind of movie – braying brass, etc. – but is better when least demonstrative, as shown in the marathon, eight-minute end titles.
CREDITS
Presented by Dream Author Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Huayi Brothers Pictures (CN), Huayi Brothers (Beijing) Film Distribution (CN). Produced by Shenzhen Feixing Film Culture Development (CN).
Script: Fei Xing, Gu Haoran. Novel: Tianxia Bachang [Zhang Muye]. Photography: Chen Zhiying. Editing: Su Lifeng. Music: Yang Zhuoxin. Song music: Yang Zhuoxin. Art direction: Zhao Yu. Styling: Liang Tingting. Sound: Yin Jie, Mao Haifeng. Action: Bak Ju-cheon. Visual effects: Jeong Seong-jeon, Bak Hweon. Visual-effects design: Yuan Shuo. Executive direction: Zhang Zuofeng, Zhang Peng.
Cast: Cai Heng (Hu Bayi), Gu Xuan (Shirley Yang), Yu Heng (Wang Kaixuan/Pangzi/Fatty), Cheng Taishen (Sun Xuewu, professor), Ma Yuke (Jin Ya/Gold Tooth), Chen Yusi (Zhou Linglong), Tang Zhiwei (Zhou Jiuye, Zhou Linglong’s father), Tuo Zonghua (Chen Yulou/Chen Xiazi/Blind Chen), Zhang Luyao, Liu Yuanyuan (Jingjue, queen), Zhu Yun’er (Kongque/Peacock), Xu Lu (Caiyun, Kongque’s mother), Da Kang (Zhou Jiuye’s steward).
Release: China, 29 Dec 2018.