11-28-2019, 02:13 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-28-2019, 03:12 PM by Drunk Monk.)
This is the latest Jackie Chan. Remember when Jackie did all his own stunts? Well, that was a long time ago. This is a CGI-driven flick and the finale fight is all CGI Jackie flying about in the extradimensional yaoguai universe with demons and pagoda asteroids. Looks more like a videogame than a movie.
But let's step back a bit. Jackie plays Pu Songling, a landmark author from the 18th century who wrote a classic revered book of supernatural tales, kind of the post-renaissance Chinese Rod Serling. I love those stories, although I'm not sure I've even read them all because back when I was into that, only a few were translated and not very well. I imagine they're all translated and I should revisit that.
This film imagines Pu as a period ghostbuster - it's Jackie with the bulk of his facial wrinkles digitally erased. He wields a magic brush and his book, the receptacle of his capture demons. Now a few years ago, the film Monster Hunt was a monster hit (see http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=3545) starting a trend towards yaoguai-based films. Yaoguai in Mandarin is the same characters as yokai in Japanese - it's the supernatural world where demons prey upon humans, only the demons are completely different than elves and goblins (actually there is a goblin in here so those are kinda universal). Pu is aided by demons, a flying boat demon named Handsy, a piggish demon, a fairy-esque cupid doll demon and a fart demon. Yup a fart demon. I don't know why farts are so funny in these yaoguai flicks but there's always a chubby baby that deploys farts as weapons. This fart demon is named Gassy and looks like the cousin of the Mucinex-loogy demon. There’s also cross dressing.
It's a pretty painful watch. I love yaoguai tales, but since Monster Hunt, they've gotten cutesy and annoying. The demonesses are good. Chinese demonesses are always good. They are sisters and echo themes of White Snake. There's some interesting takes on Daoist exorcist magic, like the torrent of yellow paper talismans. There's one Jackie-style fight scene where he battles possessed guards with furniture - the guards do the stunts tho, moving about stiffly like zombie robots for comic effect. Overall, not worth the watch unless you really really really luv Jackie. And that's me. I will always revere Jackie for his 80-90s films, so much so that'll I'll watch his terrible films like this as an act of loyalty. Every once in a while, he'll still deliver stuff like The Foreigner, but alas, he's old now, despite the digital facelift, and can never recapture the daring days of doing his own stunts.
Not DOOM recommended, even for sinocinephiles like cf.
But let's step back a bit. Jackie plays Pu Songling, a landmark author from the 18th century who wrote a classic revered book of supernatural tales, kind of the post-renaissance Chinese Rod Serling. I love those stories, although I'm not sure I've even read them all because back when I was into that, only a few were translated and not very well. I imagine they're all translated and I should revisit that.
This film imagines Pu as a period ghostbuster - it's Jackie with the bulk of his facial wrinkles digitally erased. He wields a magic brush and his book, the receptacle of his capture demons. Now a few years ago, the film Monster Hunt was a monster hit (see http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=3545) starting a trend towards yaoguai-based films. Yaoguai in Mandarin is the same characters as yokai in Japanese - it's the supernatural world where demons prey upon humans, only the demons are completely different than elves and goblins (actually there is a goblin in here so those are kinda universal). Pu is aided by demons, a flying boat demon named Handsy, a piggish demon, a fairy-esque cupid doll demon and a fart demon. Yup a fart demon. I don't know why farts are so funny in these yaoguai flicks but there's always a chubby baby that deploys farts as weapons. This fart demon is named Gassy and looks like the cousin of the Mucinex-loogy demon. There’s also cross dressing.
It's a pretty painful watch. I love yaoguai tales, but since Monster Hunt, they've gotten cutesy and annoying. The demonesses are good. Chinese demonesses are always good. They are sisters and echo themes of White Snake. There's some interesting takes on Daoist exorcist magic, like the torrent of yellow paper talismans. There's one Jackie-style fight scene where he battles possessed guards with furniture - the guards do the stunts tho, moving about stiffly like zombie robots for comic effect. Overall, not worth the watch unless you really really really luv Jackie. And that's me. I will always revere Jackie for his 80-90s films, so much so that'll I'll watch his terrible films like this as an act of loyalty. Every once in a while, he'll still deliver stuff like The Foreigner, but alas, he's old now, despite the digital facelift, and can never recapture the daring days of doing his own stunts.
Not DOOM recommended, even for sinocinephiles like cf.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse