Brief Story Line
Set in the fantasy world where demons exist, a Yin-yang master named Qing Ming (Mark Chao - The Warriors Gate, Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings etc) was given the task by his master to make sure the serpent demon who would be awaken soon, was kept in its prison. As he went to the capital, Qing Ming met with a warrior named Bo Ya (Allen Deng - Ashes of Love TV series etc) who despised demons and both of them were at each others throats at first.
In the capital, together with other warriors and priests named Long Ye (Jessie Li - The Hidden Sword etc) and Shouyue (Duo Wang - Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back etc), they were tasked by the Princess (Olivia Wang - Ode to Joy TV series etc) to be the guardians and protect the Empress.
So what would happen to Qing Ming and would he be able to fulfill his master's wish?
End of Brief Story Line
Ok to be honest, when I watched the first few minutes, I was not too impressed with what I saw. Despite having few nice fight sequences, I thought the CGI were not too good. They looked kind of too obvious and made me a bit disappointed. However as the story progressed and we got to see the lead character Qing Ming ventured to the capital, I was very impressed by the beautiful (albeit likely computer animated) view of the capital and of course the wonderful fight scene with the second lead Bo Ya. Somehow I felt their fighting were elegant.
As we were introduced with the rest of the characters with their own personal background, I was pretty much enjoying it. Even though the story moved in a not so fast pace, I thought the story telling was quite nice, but it did take me a while to better understand it and luckily the occassional fight scenes managed to drag me out of boredom. Afterall, having a very long duration of 2 hours 12 minutes (including closing credit which had a brief scene that I did not quite understand as it seemed to have no significance at all) would be quite a challenge if it was not kept interesting.
Sadly, the final fight scene which was supposed to be the grand climax did not truly satisfy me, again because of the heavy CGI use. Although compared to low budget movies, this one at least was better and more convincing. Btw, I thought the costume department really did fantastic job here. They truly helped in making the fight scenes looked stylish. The musical area was also a great part. I really loved the way they enhanced our feeling like during the fights or the more emotional moments. There was also a lovely theme song playing in the background & during closing credits titled Chi Qing Zhong sung by Allen Deng himself (even my wife who heard it while I played this movie liked it as well).
Talking about emotions, I felt that the director/writer Guo Jingming (creator of popular romance drama Tiny Times with its 3 sequels) seemed to be adding bromance with possible hint of boys love. But the one that I liked the most was the love story involving an unlikely couple which was beautiful but in a sad way. The cast were generally ok with Mark Zhao and Allen Deng seemed to be cast due to their rising popularity.
Overall, this movie was OK to me. I did enjoy few aspects like the stylish fights, the costumes, the story and music, but if it was not too heavily reliant on CGI, it might have been more satisfying. However I could also understand that CGI would be required for a fantasy movie. So if you are fans of Chinese fantasy film with classic tale of humans fight against demons plus some "forbidden" love story then this should be a perfect option. But if you prefer more of a wuxia martial arts movie without the fantasy element, then it might not really suit you. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Here's the lovely OST of the movie:
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