Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe

The film starts well but slows down during the middle act. Also it moves between flashbacks which may confuse some viewers. The effects of the creatures and action were good but most of the things were offscreen n the kills were mild. Mayb the makers were happy with pg13. I have been a lil generous with a 7 cos of the creature effects n Yao Chen's luscious lips.

So...I watched 60 Minutes last night about the Chinese market for big budget movies. This movie popped up for a 10 second example of "monster" movies finally being made in and available to the Chinese public. While the visual aspect of this movie is up there with any big budget American film of this time, the story is unbelievably bad (really bad). It is obvious that millions were spent on this film but they could not seem to be able to spend $500 on a script. I do believe it is worth watching for the CGI eye candy and the acting isn't half bad, but WOW, they still have a way to go as far as story goes. This is like Transformers 4 on steroids with a worse story (if that is possible).

It will be interesting to see how this Chinese/US cinema relationship takes us. Hopefully this us just the start of something a bit (much?) better.

I also have to admit that I liked the use of minimal blood and no bad language and still have an entertaining movie. This shows you don't have to have heads chopped off and the F bomb every 30 seconds to entertain people. This is one aspect of the new Chinese "blockbuster" style movies that I do like.

The special effects and acting in this are pretty good as is the directing. The script is another matter. Stupid on toast. One can't even account the absurdity to modern re-telling of ancient Chinese lore, as this is totally modern fiction. It has a plot, sort of, it has a story line, sort of. I'm giving it 5 stars because it's a somewhat interesting watch and keeps ones attention all the way through, but the longer the movie goes the more ludicrous it gets and the ending is a total let-down. Plus, the werewolf like monsters have been seen before and seem to be right out of Daz 3D. I'm a fan of Chinese cinema. This was a disappointment.

The synopsis for "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" (aka "Jiu ceng yao ta") does make this sort of feel like a mixture between the traditional Asian martial arts movie mixed up with a hefty doze of "Tomb Raider" or "Indiana Jones". And this is also what the movie turned out to be, to some extend...

Visually then "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" was indeed a nice treat for the eyes to behold on the screen. Lots of great things, details in the scenes, props, costumes, etc. to look at. But the story just failed to have all that shine and luster that the visuals had.

The story turned out to be a confusing scramble of an attempt of writing a coherent storyline, and it just lacked that all-important red thread that ties it all together. And on that account, the movie just became something of a visual presentation of various effects and Visuals, more than it was a story-based and story-driven movie. Which ended up being a hindrance for the movie.

Now, whether this was the fault of director Chuan Lu or the fault of writers Chuan Lu, Bobby Roth and Nick Roth, I can only guess of course. But I am prone to lean towards the writers.

The characters in the movie were well enough details and chiseled out on the screen, but they just were run over by the confusion of the entire movie, which overshadowed everything. And it should also be noted that they had indeed managed to get together a good ensemble of acting talents to star in the movie, just a shame that they had virtually no script or storyline to work with.

There are far better forays into the adventure genre, even in Asian cinema, and as such, then "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" is hardly the type of movie that you will watch more than a single time.

1979 in a distant area near Mongolia, huge monster skulls are discovered. The exploration team finds a way to the ghost temple, where dangerous beings can get through a portal. Not only the big "hell hounds", but also the tiny "fire bats", whose mere touch burns human beings to ashes. Hu Bayi (Mark Chao) survives and reads occult literature to understand better what has happened to the team. The movie continues with the second expedition probably in 1988, not "present day" as many reviewers wrote mistakenly, because we see a 1985 calendar and then get a subtitle '3 years later'. Also Hu Bayi is not an old man yet. Anyhow, he meets his lost love Ping, who now calls herself Shirley and pretends not to know him. The second expedition takes them to a destroyed desert town, and then the monsters reappear. What will happen when the portal gets opened again?

This fantasy movie is a bit complicated, not telling the events chronologically, but jumping between 1979, 1985 and 1988 (?). It's not too easy on the audience, but it's worth paying attention. The 3D effects work well, especially in the cave scenes when you really feel you can look down into the depths. I'm not entirely satisfied with the monsters, as the jumps don't look real. For the weight they must have, they jump much too high, looks a bit like rubber balls. Anyhow, the story satisfies, and the effects are still pretty good apart from minor grudges.