![]() ![]() Among the leads, only Li Qin displays any measure of gravitas, with a stern and steely turn. Tang Yixin is cutesy, while Meng Meiqi’s expresses her character’s tragic inner conflicts with an irate teenager’s sulky pout. Sean Xiao is relentlessly wide-eyed and whiny, and rather unconvincing when the script requires him to go dark. Antagonists are conjured out of a world whose geography and power dynamics are very ill-defined, and individual powers seem to be re-defined at every scene, which makes tension and suspense rather non-existent. And while Ching Siu Tung’s previous film, the middling The Sorcerer and the White Snake, was often an eyesore but was powered by a strong cast, Jade Dynasty reverses that equation, with the aforementioned strong visuals but a lightweight cast. The one pitfall Jade Dynasty doesn’t avoid is the abstruse stakes. Wan Pin Chu’s score is superb and old-fashioned. CGI is omnipresent of course, but most of the time it has a painterly, evocative quality to it, seamlessly blending with Chan Wai Nin’s beautiful cinematography (all earthy pastels, a pleasant paradox) and Lau Man Hung’s elegantly pared-down art direction. ![]() And though there are mild comic interludes (a mischievous monkey is either a marvel of CGI or truly excellent animal training), there are no jarring tonal shifts. Visually, it’s often a feast for the eyes. After succinctly yet efficiently introducing the main characters and what drives them, it espouses a tournament structure during which secrets start unraveling, then launches into a massive action finale. The plot, while relentlessly manufacturing bland and chemistry-free love entanglements, has a welcome self-contained and streamlined quality to it, where so many other Chinese fantasy epics keep bombarding the audience with new characters. Jade Dynasty fares rather well in this regard. If you’ve read – and, more impressively, remember – more than one of our reviews of Chinese fantasy epics, you’ll know we have come to to identify an unholy trinity of flawss in Chinese fantasy: unruly narratives, abstruse stakes and uneven visuals. But soon Biyao starts falling in love with Xiaofan, and all hell threatens to break loose. But the weapon is coveted by the Demon King, who sends Biyao (Meng Meiqi) to retrieve it. ![]() Yet as a mysterious pearl given to him ten years ago by an old master (Xiong Xin Xin) comes in contact with his blood, it turns into the Fire Stick, a powerful weapon that follows him around, serves only him, and makes him victorious in any fight, even against Lu Xueqi (Li Qin) the tournament’s clear favorite, who harbors secrets of her own. So when a tournament is organized between local martial arts sects, no one expects him to rank high. Adopted into the Qingyun sect and befriended there by Tian Ling’er (Tang Yixin), whom he secretly loves, he has learned martial arts for ten years but has shown little talent for it. Set in Ancient China, it follows Zhang Xiaofan (Sean Xiao), whose parents and entire village were massacred by the mysterious Demon King. Already adapted into a TV series ( The Legend of Chusen, starring Li Yifeng and Zhao Liying), it’s an eight-part saga and Jade Dynasty has both a cliffhanger ending and an original Mandarin title, 诛仙I, that confidently bears the number one the film’s solid success (close to 60 million dollars) means said confidence may not have been misplaced. After an eight-year hiatus from directing – an interval in which he only choreographed one film (Bollywood superhero film Krrish 3) and contributed to Jack Ma’s all-star ego-stroking short film On that Night… While we Dream – Ching Siu Tung is back with an adaptation of Mainland author Xiao Ding’s popular fantasy novel Zhu Xian. ![]()
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