Just some fun facts and interesting tidbits (please don't let them change your mood on watching it):
- This film and the sequel are universally slammed by the Chinese community (by both commoners and critics). Both films are currently 3.8 out of 10 [Do note that the lowest score there is 2.0 cuz the lowest you can rate is 1 out of 5 stars on a 10 points scale] in Douban, the Chinese "IMDB". It's an example of a film that did horrible locally but great internationally. A Hollywood example for this would be Warcraft, which is received much better in China than...everywhere else from what I understand.
- The director, Guo Jingming, actually was also the author of those books. I never really read his work but he was initially an author, so the books being better is...very likely the case.
- He became a self-made director because no one would adapt and film his works, so he's like "fuck it, imma do it all by myself". While his films aren't getting good scores, he had commercial success on his first few films so he eventually got investors and don't need to self-fund anymore.
- GJM had a distinct visual and scriptwriting style. It's not an award-winning style, but you can watch and go "ah, this is a GJM film". Kind of like Bayhem -- you can dislike or like Michael Bay but dude surely is distinctive in his craft (I know some don't believe he has "craft").
- GJM's films are so well-liked in the international scene (largely because they are still relatively new and rarely seen to the international audience) that I don't know why he doesn't try to expand outward.
- Especially so cuz he was sort of hardblocked in Mainland China due to a protest against him for plagiarism.
- His newest film, The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity, was daily top 5 in Netflix when it's on there last year. But the sequel might be in trouble due to the situation he's currently in with the China entertainment industry. - - Also, the actor Deng Lun, who plays the main character in TYYM was caught for tax evasion two days ago and might meet the same fate as GJM.
Oh, wow. This is enlightening! I did not know this film was slammed by the Chinese community. No wonder the sequel release was halted for some years.
I now understand why he eventually released the sequel via online streaming. Indeed GJM has a distinct craft and he's doing great. The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity is on my next weekend watch list! ☺️
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I am pretty sure every country has their own "OMG this is garbage" film making banks somewhere else. Taste is ultimately different across the globe. Also, some tropes that are overused in one cinema culture can be fresh to a different audience. Like I have seen people here (I am from Malaysia) absolutely love some "5.0 in IMDB", typical hollywood formulaic movies.
For instance, a lot of C-Dramas available on the various Youtube channels of Chinese streaming companies aren't that well-received inside China but had incredible amount of praises on the Youtube comments and high score on sites like MyDramaList.
It's why I believe that international release is smart for entertainment industries everywhere but not many are doing it aggressively. I have always credited the the success of S. Korea entertainment industry in the 2010s to their willingness to share their entertainment products to the world. Meanwhile, China and Japan have a more passive, "stick to our own country" strategy that just hurt their growth and international reputation IMO.
The situation with the sequel was more complicated. They had to re-do some parts of the film due to Fan Bingbing. It's funny and sad that there are so many talents in this series getting banned or potentially banned by the China's entertainment industry. China has a very strict protocol on this and will ban anyone with criminal records, no matter how small, or any star with records of some unlawful or unethical activities. A ban like this means that they cannot be shown on any entertainment product. New films and etc have to take the character out and all the old things said talents are in had to be taken down from the internet streaming platforms.
They had to re-do the animation on the sequel cuz FBB was banned and they had to completely remove her part from it. FBB was banned like a few months before the theatrical release of the sequel and there's not enough time to remake the CGs so they are forced to cancel the whole theatrical release.
It's not the worst decision though. Online streaming is the go-to platform for drama and movie consumption in Mainland China and the sequel is pay-to-watch. It's pretty much digital theatrical release so I am sure the investors still earn back a decent amount of money despite the failed theatrical release.