User reviews

This is a visually stunning fantasy. The acting is decent throughout and the action sequences are quite good. As most Asian fantasy movies, the storyline is somewhat convoluted making it difficult at times to understand the characters. It also has a soundtrack befitting an epic fantasy.

I was inspired to watch this because "Yin Yang Master" (also 2021) was entertaining. This one was different. It was a feast for the yes in terms of CGI, very realistically rendered. But the plot was convoluted, and the reasoning for the plot seemed so very arbitrary that I simply didn't care.

This movie was a mashup of old chinese kung-fu movies of medieval times, TLR, End Game, Dr. Strange, E. T. (at least the glowing fingers), and probably others. Like ye olde chinese medieval movies, the characters take themselves way too seriously, and every sentence is uttered as if a gem of wisdom to be savoured. Tiresome.

The fight scenes in the beginning was as ballet as can be. At the end, however, it got more realistic. Thanks or that saving grace.

The scenery was awesome, as was the music. Set design, etc., all great. The story? Meh.

This is a film that is over two hours long. Most of it is people emoting with their faces without doing anything, moving slowly, talking slowly. The rest is a bit of Wire-fu and CGI and a lot of knowledge lost in translation. That doesn't make it a bad film, because the production values and acting were good, while the story is a combination of murder mystery, detective story, love drama and monster flick. Yeah, it goes all over the place. It's just slow.

Moreover, a lot of other reviewers took the story to be about the love between the master and the empress, but to me it felt like it was more between Qing Ming and Bo Ya. Certainly they had the more romantically long face emoting moments. And that ending!

Anyway, there is a lot of stuff lost in translation for a Westerner. Even if we don't need to understand the mechanics of the magic, or the spirit servants, or the giant snake, we can get the overall idea for the story. But as many other people said, what you see translated in the English subtitles is also not enough to understand what the people are talking about, certainly not the finer metaphorical and cultural aspects of the dialogue.

Bottom line: I watched this on the TV app, which doesn't have a speed setting. Netflix! Make the speed setting available everywhere!! Did I mention the film feels really slow?

The movie needs an adventure theme for great, but not disappointed either, I subscribe Netflix for waiting for this movie airing. Good movie and suppose to have a sequel.

I feel like 6/10 may even be too generous. Still, it is visually pleasing.... but it was hard for me to look past the largely incoherent storyline. Such a shame because it had so much potential. To enjoy this movie you have to lower your expectations in advance.... and try not to think too much about the insane amount of plot holes.

Nice sets, nice costumes and choreography but a little too much CGI for my taste and codes that I do not have which prevented me from understanding everything and being fully connected to the story. I haven't seen the other films in the series. to see for the regulars and the curious.

The pictures are quite beautiful but the story telling is really poor. I lost my interest after 30 minutes. The whole story and the setting of the characters are very shallow and childish to me.

Great cg, complete story telling, all the actors and actresses perform their best in this movie. and of course the background music, the sound track is perfect. Even though I think the director should cut some scene out, but this doesn't affect me from liking this film. I don't see a reason why this movie is rated so low. Wondering if those people spamming here ever watched this film.

Even films leaning on mythology and fantasy have to have some sort of internal structure and coherence. This one fails on both counts. In fact, it's as if it doesn't really care that the fantasy elements are internally consistent and events make some sort of (even fantastical) sense, as long as the visuals are pretty and the emotional element overwhelming. It scores high on these two counts, for sure. Everything else is more or less left unexplained, hovering on thin air, so to speak (the princess's travels and actions, why the three guardians failed to appear, etc.). Emotions are lofty indeed, as befits mythological narratives that paint extreme situations in broad strokes, rather than insinuating the complexity and nuance of real-life situations. On their own, though, they are not sufficient to lend sense to a world of mythology. Non-western systems of belief have their own internal logic and actions are explained by it, if differently to actions in a western context. The movie fails on this score, and soppy acting by the main characters is no substitute. What all this gives us is lots of disjoint scenes of spectacular action and intense sentiment, underlined by very good CGI and visual work. It does not give us a full-scale movie.

10/10 costume and set design. These areas are consistently stunning in Chinese cinema. The story however, is just told in such a counterintuitive way. Many things are left unexplained, motives are unclear and only clarified somewhat in the end. It felt like jumping into season 3 of a show without watching the previous build up episodes. I'd only recommend this movie for studying its visual aspects.

The language and cultural differences are still a huge barrier for people from English or other foreign language speaking countries to truly understand this movie. The fighting scenes and the special effects are simply not the focus of the movie. The theme of this film is love. For people who can truly resonate with this movie, it's really hard not to cry.

Audience from Asian countries definitely can better resonate with the love story between the Princess and Zhongxing (Qingming's master). Some people say the love in this movie is too philosophical or even cliche. One reason is they simply cannot appreciate Oriental style of love. Another reason is because the English script is too bad. Honestly, both the English dubbing and the scripts are bad. For English audience, I don't know if it will be better to listen to the Chinese audio and read the English script.

There are just so many things lost in the translation. The music is first class!!! I am a Chinese, so I can almost fully understand what this movie is talking about. The first time I watched it, I simply cannot stop crying mutiple times.

Got to say, this is a pretty movie. CGI effects are great, each scene was so beautiful that I would not think twice to screenshot and put up as my desktop wallpaper. But, the plot is very simple, quite surface thinking, there is not a lot of deep thought that can be resonance after watching the movie. I like the princess, I think her acting is good, I particularly like the scene where she stands below the pear blossom asking the man not to leave. So sad but beautiful. Honestly, I find this movie so boring, so predictable. However, if you want to watch something that free up your brain power, this is a good option.

This is a fantasy flick first, with a little action and lots of CGI. And expect to see similar graphics from the Avengers. Personally, fantasy films story line bore me, and this one did too. In summary, if you have nothing else to watch..

I don't watch any BL but the immediately recognized it in this movie so am impressed good job

Guo Jingming's films are so spectacularly, unwatchably awful that they are--on some level--a genuine miracle. How a dude this divinely untalented continues to get work is beyond me.

In addition to not understanding what a film should look, sound, or feel like, Mr. Guo also has no idea whatsoever how to tell a story. If you watch this movie, you will not only have no idea what's going on, you will be exposed to dialogue so pretentiously cringe-inducing it puts you at severe risk of permanent spinal injury.

So I didn't like it, in other words.

I wasn't sure what to expect of this. Having been a fan of Chinese fantasy films for a while I expected it to be the usual subpar CGI and a decent story.

The CGI on this was absolutely fantastic, I was genuinely shocked, they've come a far way. The story, although a little rushed, was touching and beautiful with incredible acting. The director has had issues before but really pulled this one off and the script was great. All around a very entertaining Thursday evening film to watch!

We've tried to watch this movie for about 30 minutes and decided to quit. What another lousy Chinese CGI crap! The costumes and make-up not only over-the-top ridiculous, it's even looked more like a Japanese fantasy and horror movie. The screenplay, a big joke; the dialog, so pretentious and hollow; the make-up, Jesus....Don't know why Chinese movies have degenerated to such a low level without any substance but superfluously shallow. They just got huge budget to spend and didn't even give a damn to what they were making, all they did was to throw big money to make them look cool like Emperor's Gown with nothing underneath, not even an underpants, it's completely naked without nothing worth seeing. Korean's movies usually got 6/10 at least in rating, but in fact, most of the movies from Korea, generally got over 7.8.9/10. If you take a look at the Chinese movies, most were under 5.4.3.2.1/10 and most were unwatchable. This one is no exception, I gave it 1/10 score. If I could give 0/10, I'd be more satisfied.

I do believe in the good and the bad - especially because we define what those are. Something that was considered good to a degree a century ago, is seen as something else today. Views change, we evolve and that is good. If we evolve in the right direction - of course that alone is a statement that only works if you have similar views.

But that all aside, because it doesn't get too philosophical here. This is telling or giving us a fairy tale. Fantasy and action - and in quite the decent fashion I might add. If you are prone to or generally attracted to fantasy from the east (I know it may not make sense geographically, but I didn't come up with the terms) - you could do worse.

Chinese cinema seems to make the same old garbage movies. The storyline is horrible, the acting is horrible x2!!! And the soundtrack/sound effects are disturbing to say the least. Leave Asian cinema to S. Korea

The movie was great thanks to engaging fighting scenes and great acting from the actors. The CGI used in the film are also top notch and the storyline itself was great. The beginning of the movie was a bit hard to understand but over time the story began to reveal itself slowly and with a great amount of suspense. The plot itself was not predictable which made the film better as it kept you guessing. Kudos to the costume designers as all the outfits all suited the characters perfectly and looked great. Probably the only complaint I have about this movie is that there were a few unnecessary characters in the film that were only probably used to thicken the plot but other than that this film was thrilling to watch and is a great Chinese movie and is worth your time. (It kind of reminded me of detective dee)

Awesome special effects, great action sequences and overall a very enjoyable movie. I would say if you combined Dr. Strange with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon it would be like this movie. I give it about a 7.5..... Better than a 7 but less than an 8. Watch and enjoy!!

The movie have the typical weakness of the Chinese movies. Its done as somebody tells you a long myth or a legend. Its not like a movie. You don't feel you are part of the movie. You are listening a legend with millions of happenings and you get lost at the end. Too much explanatory talks and gives you the feeling that everything is made up like a long long bed time story. Story is not made for a movie. Animations need also more realistic touch.

First let me say I'm not Asian and I don't speak any Asian languages or know anything about Asian culture/myths. So I'm sure I missed a lot of important details because of this and I'm not used to this style of storytelling. But I've developed quite a fondness for Korean dramas recently which have now spoiled me and I can't stand Hollywood blockbusters anymore. LOL

With that being said, the story is a bit confusing at first but soon you get what's happening. The visuals are beautiful, the CGI is perfect, the action scenes are exciting but not overly violent or gory, and there is no nudity or sex. The acting is superb! Being used to over acting from Western actors with plastic faces, bulging muscles and blinding white teeth, this feels otherwordly in the best of ways. The soundtrack really transports you to a different world. The story is unique and I found myself invested in the characters immediately. I would love to see this as a series!

And OMG Asian men with long black hair are my new favorite thing (with all due respect).