Typically, I’m not a fan of Asian fantasy movies, but, like with most things, I currently have exceptions, three to be exact with this genre: Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons (2013), Onmyoji (2001) and its sequel Onmyoji II (2003). I plan to review the two Onmyoji flicks at some point, and haven’t yet seen the Journey To The West sequel from 2017. But, I have come across other Asian fantasy movies, and what sometimes turns me off is a certain level of “weirdness.” The crazy thing is, though, I like weird shit. The Conquering The Demons has some quite bizarre elements in its final act, but that specific ” level of weirdness” didn’t bother me, so, go figure. In regards to what got me into wanting to review this particular Asian fantasy film, two things: the incredible looking trailer and the fact Well Go USA included an English dub track; it might be more the latter though. I personally prefer dub tracks when it comes to viewing foreign films, but if the movie is something I straight up loved watching, I do tolerate them, though the number of subtitled-only flicks in my collection number in the 3s: Well Go’s creature feature, Creepy Crawly (2022), and two Lovecraftian inspired flicks from Spain titled, The Valdemar Legacy (2010) and its sequel, The Valdemar Legacy II: The Forbidden Shadow (2010). But there wasn’t anything that triggered my weird-shit-O-meter in this film, and therefore it worked for me like gangbusters!
This primarily Chinese made film is the first of a trilogy, and based on a 16th century fantasy novel called, Investiture of the Gods. It’s focus is mainly on characters from the Shang Dynasty, specifically the Royal Guards, and the mad King they protect. They were hostages sent to him who raised them as his own, but this is such a twisted tale, he baits them—orders them actually—to kill their biological fathers in one particular scene where he believed they were conspiring against him.
The prologue is a huge battle this Dynasty is having with another, and my first impressions of what I was seeing had me thinking someone’s a huge fan of Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy, the battlefield shown is very much on a grand scale. In fact, of the Asian fantasy films I’ve seen, this one looks the most grand and probably the most expensive. This prologue takes place in the winter, and there’s an event that takes place that had me scratching my head: the attempted murder of a woman who’s deemed a traitor, but she decides to kill herself as an avalanche screams towards her carriage. At the same time a sword fight is happening with this King, and the blood from his wound leaks underground and frees something. This supposedly dead woman then comes back to life with animal eyes and starts acting “weird,” like, alluring weird as she’s surrounded by our Royal Guard main characters who suddenly don’t want to kill her now, so they capture her instead. Back at basecamp she creeps up to the King, and licks his blood, another visit into his personal space, and another lick, but this one heals his shoulder wound completely! Oh, yeah, she’s got his attention now!
I was keeping my fingers crossed this subplot continues. Thank God it did. This dead chick was possessed by a fox demon that was released when the King’s blood bled on its supernatural prison. This character reminded me of Wormtongue from Lord Of The Rings, as she appears to now be “with the King, and influencing his decisions.” He has a Queen too, whose mother to one of the Royal Guard characters, but she doesn’t survive an encounter with this possessed chick. The twist with her, though, given the Wormtongue reference, is once she’s forced to reveal her true nature to the King, the assumption being all the evil this King is doing is because of her influence, we learn he doesn’t really care she’s possessed by a fox demon, and all the evil he was doing was because he was just an evil fuck at heart! This little revelation came as a shock to me, not to mention also to the “son” who was present when all this shit went down.
I liked the fox demon angle a lot, since the actress puts in a creepy performance, and at night this thing leaves her body to go feast on human flesh! A couple of the Royal Guards track blood and slurping sounds to a secret spot where this thing has killed a dude and is currently chowing down on his guts. CGI for this thing was excellent as well, not to mention oddly pleasant on the eyes as it’s a stark, white, spirit-like animal that can hop and flow smoothly through the atmosphere. In fact, regarding the CGI in the whole movie, I’d say ninety-nine percent of it was very well executed.
This shot isn’t in the movie, it feels like concept art, but here you can see the Fox Demon (he’s not that huge either, about the size of an actual fox in the film), with the chick it’s possessing.
We eventually get a full court with the Gods, who seem to have a love/hate relationship with mankind. Currently, there’s a great curse sweeping over the material plane, and one of the Gods says they deserve it, but the God in charge wants to save them, and has devised a plan that entails delivering a magical scroll to the Ruler Of All Realms, who will unseal it and vanquish the curse, but they don’t seem to know that the Ruler Of All Realms is that evil King I mentioned earlier. The scroll has to be hand delivered, with the catch being any God who touches it will lose his or her immortality; in this universe it’s not uncommon for a mortal to become a God, and, so, this one God steps up and says he’ll take the bullet for mankind. His rationale being he’s only been a God for forty years, while the others are, like, triple digit immortal, with a lot more power, and it’d be a damn shame for that to go to waste. He ages to old man status and is accompanied by two Gods, one’s a kid who flies using rings of fire under his feet, and the other travels through water, can become water, and so forth. Both are Superman strong.
There’s also another subplot of an evil sorcerer, who answers to some kind of force in the ocean.
Believe it or not, there’s actually an upbeat ending with most of the main characters, except the King and Queen, surviving, but I don’t know if that Fox demon subplot is resolved, she’s nowhere in sight in the chaotic final act that involves the Royal Guard turning on the King; that sorcerer animating a couple of stone dragons; and a Royal Guard son returning to his father. Keep in mind that scroll still hasn’t been delivered and a curse still ravages the material realm . . .
Boutique distributor Well God USA releases Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms (2023) here in America on separate blu-ray and DVD on May 28th, which you can buy on Amazon!
Video/Audio/Subtitles: 1080p 1.85:1 High Definition Widescreen—5.1 Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.o Mandarin Dolby Digital, 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.0 English Dolby Digital—English, French, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional) Subs
Extras Included . . .
- The Makeup (7:24)
- Art Design (6:37)
- Special Effects (11:39)
- Onset Lighting (5:10)
- Trailer (2:49)
After checking out the extras, what I came away with is that this does indeed feel like China’s Lord Of The Rings! It took four years from conception to completion, with two years of prep time. And artists from several countries helped, like Canada, France and the U.S. Andy Serkis also consulted for the motion capture used; they worked a week with him. You’ll also see how much practical versus digital was used, and while some of what was digital was obvious (landscape shots/demons/magic/creatures obviously), I was surprised how much of the practical was built, including temple interiors, and a section of forest I thought was a location was an entire freaking set! You’ll even get some scenes from what I presume is the second film; its stated the four demonic giants are important characters (we get to see the make-up created and put on the actors), but I didn’t see anything like them in this movie, then they finally showed a couple of very quick scenes, and, yeah, those are definitely part of either the second or third flick. In all, this is the best Asian fantasy film I’ve ever seen, with a second and third chapter eager to challenge that assertion, I suspect.
PHYSICAL MEDIA LIVES AT . . . 