Mojin: The Lost Legend

It's one of those movies that I knew I'd be interested in, going to the theaters. the poster screams action and adventure like Indiana Jones.

It's a buddy movie with a little romance and fantastic imagery. It's how the Chinese are doing epic these days, outdoing the American blockbuster, or at least giving it a valiant effort.

The special effects are boss, and the movie comes with a great assortment of charters in a story that untangles in a way that keeps you interested in what happens next.

But I have to admit, Mojin is not as charming and amusing as they think of themselves, but that might have more to do with the cultural differences

One of my favorite parts was a scene were the characters just began to drop f-bombs like it was nothing. It felt like the use of this word was not as bad in China as it is in America (especially in sub title form), but it made for a good unexpected laugh from a movie I would have assumed was rated PG-13.

Mojin is definitely visually amazing. I could watch the imagery for days and it has a great story tied to it. Nice blockbuster made in china.

An attempt to imitate Indiana Jones unfortunately failed. Also in this case (as in Jiu ceng yao ta), the cues are many but instead of enriching the plot they end up complicating the development. On the other hand in some moments the thread of the narration is lost, everything becomes possible but without any connection or logic, the flashbacks sometimes seem put a little at random, more for narrative needs than for concrete reasons of development. It's a pity because it is a product that for the West really introduces so many new narrative inventions and possible paths never crossed but it all translates into a terrible mess.

From the two books of huangpizifen and Jingjue ancient city, the director creates a horror and horror story from the abandoned Guandong army fortress. The performance of the three main characters is good, and the play and special effects are also great.

The visuals were very nice, the acting was decent, it was an entertaining action-adventure. It also made fun of mindless communist youth in the 60s and took pride in Chinese history and mythology. I am sure a lot of things were lost in translation, but I enjoyed the watching.

The plot is simple: a team of heroic grave robbers return to the place of their first major traumatic event. They explore a weird underground tomb guarded by zombies and curses and flames and in the end find closure and unity as a team. The acting was probably the worst part of the movie, or maybe the main character, who was an arrogant idiot telling everyone what they need to do and forcing them to do it if they didn't want to, while he attempts unsuccessfully to sacrifice his life when it actually isn't necessary. I liked that the story was focused on the characters, even while they go through endless (and mostly non-sensical) action scenes.

Bottom line: it gave me a feeling of hope for China's pop cinema. After all, we just need a steady stream of good accessible movies to start understanding their culture. Americans did it and look where it got them.

We are a mere couple of weeks away from a new Mummy movie. And it just goes to show you that adventures with ancient secrets, graves and legends are still very popular in the eyes of the film watching audience. There is a couple of time-lines and everything is of course connected as you would expect. It's overall a nice adventure for the whole family with action and suspense for everyone.

You can't really judge acting in movies like that and the story overall. It's all there for the special effects to come on. The relationships work nicely and the flow of the movie is good too. The mentioned special effects are good enough. Just don't expect too much and you'll be pleased