Review: ‘Mojin - The Lost Legend (寻龙诀)’ entertains despite inconsistent special effects
Wang Kaixuan (Huang Bo) explores a cave. (Shaw Organisation)
Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com. The views expressed are his own.
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 125 minutes (~2 hours)
“Mojin - The Lost Legend (寻龙诀)” is a Chinese action adventure film based on the Chinese novel, “Ghost Blows Out the Light (鬼吹灯).” It follows the adventures of a group of treasure hunters as they discover there’s more than meets the eye to an ancient treasure. It stars Chen Kun (Hu Bayi), Huang Bo (Wang Kaixuan), Shu Qi (Shirley Yang), Angelababy (Ding Sitian), Xia Yu (Da Jin Ya), and Liu Xiaoqing (Ying Caihong).
“Mojin - The Lost Legend (寻龙诀)” is a pretty slick looking action film that pulls out all the stops… for 90% of the film. It’s the remaining 10% that really sticks out, since it suddenly cuts back on the production quality and gives us strange looking scenes. It’s good piece of entertainment with a story that surprises, even if you’re left scratching your head at some of the bewildering choices made in the direction.
Wang Kaixuan and Da Jin Ya (Xia Yu) (Shaw Organisation)
Highlights
High production values
The set design and art direction are impressive, with careful detail put into the props and costumes. These interesting visuals also help with the immersiveness of the movie. The practical effects are much more believable than the digital effects, and it should have been used more extensively in the film rather than relying on CGI.
Ba Gua (八卦) symbolism
Hu Bayi’s trademark compass is put to good effect as he navigates the treacherous obstacles that await in ancient tombs. The film employs a dynamic technique in showing how the ba gua (八卦) solves all the riddles that they encounter, allowing them to evade traps and find hidden passageways. It’s an imaginative way of presenting exposition that also teaches you a bit more about the ba gua (八卦).
Focus on the characters
While the film’s premise might make it seem that it’s all about the locations they travel to and the dungeons that they scour, it’s actually about the motivations of the three main characters and the burden that they carry. It never forgets to bring the spotlight back to our heroes, making this a character driven adventure rather than just a tour of exotic locations.
Angelababy as Ding Sitian. (Shaw Organisation)
Letdowns
Fantastical action scenes are not clear
The fantasy elements are actually pretty innovative. However, when they’re mixed with the action scenes, the execution leaves much to be desired. It’s not clear what’s happening because the director doesn’t know what to focus on. He wants you to see the action, but he also wants you to see the effort that has gone into the special effects. It ends up being a mess of things flying at each other, leaving the audience wondering what they need to be afraid of or what needs to be achieved.
Special effects are not consistent
Some of the effects are well done, such as the slow motion close ups in the opening. Then you have explosions that look like they came from a 90s video game, which are really jarring when it’s supposed to be a tense action scene. It feels like they blew the budget on the film, and had to cut back in post-production.
Lighting is strange
The lighting feels like it’s a television show rather than a film. Everything seems so brightly and clearly lit that it’s unnatural. While it does allow you to observe the effort put into the set design, it also cheapens the overall feel of the film. Perhaps a darker, more realistic approach to lightning might have worked better?
Plot contrivances
Even though it adds a good deal of symbolism and closure to the story, the coincidence that happens at the climax is completely unbelievable. It implies that the heroes are incompetent at their purported area of expertise and lack any sort of observation skills. How are we to believe they are treasure hunters when they lack the most basic of navigation skills?
Hu Bayi (Chen Kun) and Shirley Yang (Shu Qi). (Shaw Organisation)
“Mojin - The Lost Legend (寻龙诀)” is an entertaining film that looks good but has some really odd directorial decisions in terms of visuals. Still, it manages to tell its own story while still adhering to the tropes of treasure hunting.
Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? No.
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? OK.
“Mojin - The Lost Legend (寻龙诀)” opens in cinemas 7 January, 2016 (Thursday).
