La furia de la montaña

Don't believe a lot of the reviews of MANY Chinese movies on here which are over inflated as great. I loved Infernal Affairs and some other Chinese films but see all too often Chinese reviewers boasting about every film released from China. I can only recommend this if you have nothing else to watch and want to see a disaster movie like was, but if you want to see a good disaster movie I recommend The Tower and The Tunnel from Korea or The Quake and Wave from Norway. The Korean series Bargain is also good but it's more than just about the disaster which these other films have in common. I gave this three stars for FX that are hit or miss at times and the way it was shot. I didn't care for any of the characters cause we had little or no background on them unlike these other films. Some things were over the top as some have said, but to be fair, what disaster film isn't. Very formulaic and cliche ridden.

I was expecting a lot of action and there was; from the very beginning to the very end it never stopped. The special effects were incredible and made you feel as if you were in the middle of the action yourself. I didn't expect to be so moved, though. All characters are very touching. Especialy Zhu Yilong, whose acting was amazing, as usual. Jiao Jun Yan was very touching as well. Zhu Yilong had a wonderful chemistry with her and Huang Zhi Zhong who played his father. The relationship between the two was beautiful. Chen Shu's character was both strong and very humane and made me root for her. I love those stories where ordinary people do extraordinary things, in particular when they risk their lives to save others.

A natural disaster puts both a nearly complete railway tunneling project and many lives in danger. The main character Hong, an explosives engineer and the rest of the railway crew are on a rescue mission while time is running out. The movie was shot in Karst areas, capturing the spectacular views of Shuanghe Cave, one of the longest underground cave systems in the world. The technical details of explosives engineering, tunneling engineering and rail engineering look authentic and convincing. All the characters are well developed and together tell a great story. The free climbing towards the end is amazing and heartfelt, and I commend the actors for their tremendous efforts in making the scenes look legit. All in all a must see action movie in 2021.

What I really liked about this movie is that compared to most it's relatively low stakes. It's not humanity vs the end of the world, it's about saving one town. It was nice to see that the only 'villain' of the story is nature. There's no evil capitalist putting money ahead of people's lives. Instead everyone comes together to do what they can to help regardless of the financial impact. It's refreshing to see when the news seems to be full of people being selfish at the moment.

The acting was fantastic, especially Zhu Yilong, Huang Zhizhong and Chen Shu.

This movie isn't going to be a life-altering experience but for the genre I found it very enjoyable.

Yizhou (Yilong Zhu) and his girlfriend Xiaojin (Junyan Jiao) are building contractors and working on a mountain tunnel. Yizhou's Dad, Yungbing (Zhizhong Huang) - a retired rescue worker - comes to visit. Shortly after Xiaojin fetches Yungbing from the bus station, the shifting of a tectonic plate causes a giant sinkhole in town - swallowing the bus he had just been on.

The quake was caused by work on the tunnel - now already 10 years in the making - and the surrounding mountains are now in danger of collapsing. The disaster scenes are incredibly well done, and the chaos and mayhem are reminiscent of 70's disaster movies. The film is in the vein of the recent Mandarin disaster movies 'Skyfire' and 'The Bravest'.

'Cloudy Mountain' is fast-paced and exciting, with suspense around every corner. Apart from the disaster element, the film is also a survival story. I enjoyed the characters. With no annoying or arrogant characters you generally find in these genre movies, I rooted for everyone. (I must confess, almost until the finale I wasn't sure whether Ding (Shu Chen) was a protagonist or antagonist).

I love disasters movies and 'Cloudy Mountain' is a great addition to the genre. The third act did loose some momentum, but it was nevertheless still thrilling, with a satisfying ending. I thoroughly enjoyed it.