The Wandering Earth

[Drunk Monk]

Biggest film you've never heard of.  This is China's recent blockbuster starring Wu Jing - one of the top martial artists I'd love to get on the cover.  Netflix released it silently today - there was news it was acquired and it was released in UK a week or two ago, but not announced on any of the coming in May listings.  

It's 2001 HAL meets Space 1999. If you accept the whole notion of moving earth to another system with rockets, then you're good here.  That always bugged me about 1999 but it was two of the IMF so I let that slide. This is Wu Jing so I'll let it slide again. It's a rousing patriotic tale, a lot of self sacrifice, a lot filial piety, uniting after a speech on hope, tension from waiting for a program to load (we can all relate), that sort of thing. The CGI was good enough for Netflix, not sure if it would've held up on the big screen.  Maybe.  Wu Jing was great in it.  There were some good moments for sure, some interesting peeks into how PRC imagines the future. I enjoyed it once it got going and I could park my brain outside.  It has some sloppy sentimental bits, but the caricature take on foreigners was interesting, reminiscent of how Asians were depicted in Hollywood, and sometimes still are.  It's worth the view if you're interested in international sci-fi.  The cfs should definitely give it a watch.  I'll be interested to hear what the rest of you think.  I'm pretty desensitized to Chinese cinema so it's hard for me to judge.

[cranefly]

I watched this last night.  LCF chose to pass.

I accepted all the high-powered rockets blasting Earth outward through the solar system and was ready to suspend disbelief for anything after that.  And yet time and again the movie upped the ante on its idiocy.  This is based on a story by Liu Cixin?  Of The Three Body Problem?  I'd be interested to know what he thinks of the script -- though he might not be open about it.  I'll dig a little deeper after this post into what the original story was.  Cixin can get pretty far out there, but still, I thought his speculations were a little more science-founded.


The movie is ... strident.  There are so many ticking clocks one after another, to the point that it was exhausting.  At one point I paused the film for a bathroom break expecting it to show only a few minutes left, only to see there was still another hour.   This is the mother of all ticking clock movies.  And the clocks were so absurd.  Needing to do preposterous things on a preposterous timescale...

I didn't get a good feel for how it treated foreigners.  Certainly the Chinese were the saviors of humanity.  I was kept so busy trying to read subtitles and follow the action.

Wu Jing is good.  The special effects are ... good enough for Netflix, as DM said.  Clearly a whole lot of work went into this.  But I'm thinking it may not ignite on Netflix.  Too China-centric, patriotic, with sloppy sentimentals (all of which DM pointed out).  And I'm going to say it.  Too dumb even for Americans.

But I could be wrong.  There's lots of action eye candy here, with SF space-scapes.  And as Confucius once said, "Nothing is ever too dumb for Americans."  So, it'll be interesting to see how it does.

[Drunk Monk]

I didn't get a good feel for how it treated foreigners.  

There were two main laowai - the blood half breed who kept claiming to be Chinese and puked in his helmet and the Wu Jing's Russian buddy, who very grudgingly becomes very heroic.  

Netflix released this so quietly and the media didn't really cover its success when it was in theaters, so I doubt it'll have any impact on the US at all.

But man, I would LUV to get Wu Jing on the cover.

[cranefly]

After that half-breed was puking in his helmet and then there was an emergency and everyone had to don helmets and he was unsuccessfully trying to grab someone else's, there's a cut away and then back to the three of them all wearing their helmets, and his is spotless as is the others -- unless I just didn't see it right.  I was thinking they should have hired Linda Blair as a continuity consultant for that sequence.

Yeah, I checked around (wiki), and Cixin's original novella didn't have any of the drama with Jupiter that the movie added.  Earth was being rocketed out to Jupiter to get a gravity assist en route to another star system, and the big issue in the novella was debate over whether the Sun really was going to go ballistic, and whether project Wandering Earth was even necessary.  It was more philosophical and political.  So 75% of the movie (Jupiter absurdities, including virtually all of the ticking clocks) were not Cixin's.  That's pretty much what I was thinking, because it lacked even a first grade grasp of science and physics.  Film is a visual medium, and I'm okay with script changes that make a story more visual, but in this case I would have preferred something closer to Cixin's source material (which I'll have to read someday).

The movie felt surprisingly pedestrian in a lot of ways.  There was so much big truck driving across desolation -- lots of trucks, lots of demolition, reminiscent of Road Warrior.  I don't think the director and screenwriter knew how to use an outer space setting for drama.

Still, I'm happy for Cixin.  China has been slow to venture into science fiction movies -- especially ones set in space.  This is a big win for Cixin.

Oh, as for Wu Jing, it sounds like he agreed to do a cameo.  Later on, when he read the script, he saw that they had made him a main character.  I don't know contractually how that held, or whether he just said, "Fine, I'll go for it."

[Drunk Monk]

Oh, as for Wu Jing, it sounds like he agreed to do a cameo.  Later on, when he read the script, he saw that they had made him a main character.  I don't know contractually how that held, or whether he just said, "Fine, I'll go for it."

Yeah, in all the early press, he was listed as just a cameo, but he really carried the film for me.  I think I would've enjoyed it much more if it hadn't been so long winded. I enjoyed the space stuff but you're spot on about the big truck story arc - that was dull.  And the whole pushing that giant piston arc was so PRC comradery that I almost wanted to wave my chicom flag, if I had a chicom flag...

[Drunk Monk]

[Drunk Monk]

I watched TWE again in anticipation of TWE2. I enjoyed it much more the second time. For one thing, I watched it in two parts over two nights. Trying to digest it all in one go is overwhelming even for my 3+ hour Bollywood sensibilities. For another, my expectations weren’t high. I wasn’t looking to critique it, just experience it. It’s a staggering bit of world building - the details of the set, cgi, & costumes is awesome. The father/son schtick is a bit overplayed - how many times does Wu Jing tell his kid about Jupiter’s eye? And the overblown sense of sacrifice worked better for me too, or at least I was t hypersensitive to it. On second watch, I really enjoyed this. D00M recommended if taken in two parts.

[Drunk Monk]

I watched the original movie in Netflix last week and thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you're just going to post replies randomly, why don't you just post everything in the merc-in-ret thread then?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I watched the original movie in Netflix last week and thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you're just going to post replies randomly, why don't you just post everything in the merc-in-ret thread then?

Ooooooo! That's not a bad idea. Highlights the randomness of Merc-In-Ret. Only one problem: This reply wasn't whinging. Merc-In-Ret seems to be about things going wrong/complaining.

Maybe it's better to get rid of Merc-In-Ret thread and just have a year-round crappening thread?

[Greg]

Are you trying to lessen the power of Marc-in-Ret by saying bad things happen randomly and all the time regardless of the planets?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Are you trying to lessen the power of Marc-in-Ret by saying bad things happen randomly and all the time regardless of the planets?

Yes. Tis a silly construct.

[Drunk Monk]

Yes. Tis a silly construct.

The silly concept is what makes it so awesome. Retrograde motion is way up there with Piltdown Man in terms of silly explanations the perpetuate misconceptions. It's like 'my observations are in conflict with my theoretical constructs so I must make up something even sillier to reconcile it.'

[cranefly]

So.  It took me a while, but I finally think I've got this straight.  There's these rockets on one side of Mercury, and periodically they're fired to put Mercury in retrograde motion.

On a side note, I've  been collecting these coupons from Pepsi, on the promise of getting one of those Mercury impulse engines.  I've finally got enough.

So, Pepsi.  Where's my rocket?

I think I placed this on the right thread.

[Greg]

Spot on, CF. Spot on.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

CF, how's the poster look?