Da she wang

After capturing a vengeful snake, the head of a remote village terrorized by the creature believes it's safe to return to their past lifestyle, but when it becomes clear that another snake might be coming after them for the village's action in the past must try to stop it before it kills them all.

Overall, this is a fairly intriguing and enjoyable killer snake film. One of the more enjoyable factors with this one is the rather impressive rural village setup that allows for a generally worthwhile setup. The main setup of the village life offering up the elaborate ceremony to try to capture the snake that's plaguing the village which starts the film gives this a great touch about how they live involving sacrificial rituals out of fear of what the snake can do and relying on superstition to get by. After it's established they've encountered the snake previously. Realizing why the snake has returned and what that could mean for the returning creature. Using this all to be the pretense for hunting down the creature and ridding the village of everything once and for all as the various storylines get woven together the more this goes on, the main storyline premise is quite solid setting up these necessary bits. That provides the film with a solid slew of impressive attacks that are quite fun for how it's lal portrayed. The period setting and serious tone to everything makes everything feel far less cheesy than the action would usually detail, especially the opening sequence trying to capture the snake in the middle of the village. This high-energy sequence comes complete with some solid stunt-work and exciting setpieces to try to stop it, using the scale of the set to get an idea of the size of the creature which comes off quite nicely alongside the chaos of everything taking place. That carries on into the other encounters in the jungle trying to figure out what's going on or the massive assault on the village where the kaiju-sized dimensions of the snake are used to smash through huts, crash into citizens to send them flying through the air, or swallow victims whole while surviving the gunshots attempting to slow it down. Featuring a great finale as well inside the underground caves it calls home that includes some shocking deaths, thrilling action, and some clever tactics to stop it, there's quite a lot to like here. There are some issues present that hold this one back. The main detrimental factor is a confusing mess of a storyline that has way too much going on that doesn't need to be there. The main premise involving the village being cursed to deal with the snake and the ritual they perform to try to capture it works fine enough, but to then introduce several other subplots involving the mysterious shady origins of the stranger in their midst, his dealings with the authorities trying to capture him which feels like it's all included based on nonsensical reasonings that are inadvertently omitted so it all makes little sense introducing these characters with little context that only serve the muddle the storyline further, much like a bizarre interlude where they're chased by a ravenous tiger that means nothing to the film as a whole. That also causes some unnecessary revelations to come about in the finale to expand the running time when it doesn't need to, and are what end up holding this back.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

A fun and entertaining film yet a pretty standard giant snake film. I did like the action sequences and choreography for this film and unlike most Giant snake films from the US, these films are more action oriented and many times a period instead of contemporary film which adds another element. The costumes are amazing. Although the CGI snake is on par with most of the other Giant monster films I've seen from China, they are definitely better than most other CGI giant monsters (and snakes) in your standard SyFy movie.

Performances are actually better than you would expect, but then again, being a period film goes a long way in helping distinguish this film from others.