武动乾坤：涅槃神石 [The Immortal Stone of Nirvana] (2020)

A week ago, a friend recommended an onmyouji film 晴雅集 starring Deng Lun. I knew Deng Lun from the latest remake of my favorite Chinese story 封神榜 although I decided to drop it because of bad acting on the part of other actors. Also, the actress who played Daji is not even pretty.

This week after doing a chain of chores, Youtube recommended 武动乾坤 and I followed. China has been making a lot of nice movies based on games and this one is not an exception. It tells the story of 林动 who as a child, saw how his father is done injustice by the reigning 雷 clan which holds a tournament (狩猎大会) and whoever wins is granted an audience to 雷豹. At that time, 林啸 and his partner 罗成 from 狂刀武馆 win the tournament but the partner is killed whereas 林啸 is greatly incapacitated and lost his powers after meeting 雷豹. 

Eight years passed and 林动 grows up. His family is ridiculed in his clan especially by his paternal uncle, for "betraying" 罗成. He meets a member of 狂刀武馆 named 吴云 who later on becomes his partner in the tournament alongside a female archer whose master 古影 serves in the court of 雷豹. But before that, 雷豹' son 雷霹, attacks 林动 and 罗成, telling them to fight each other and that whoever wins shall get the bag of 阳元石. 林动 tells 吴云 that his father is innocent and that the real enemy is the 雷 clan. After saying so, he jumps off the cliff and is presumed to be dead. He is miraculously saved by the stone he earlier mined and he is able to quickly learn martial arts to save the village from the tyranny of the 雷 clan and to clear his father's name. He reappears just when his younger sister 青檀 is attacking 吴云 and blaming him for her brother's death. 

林动 wins the tournament and kicks 吴云 aside in order to protect him from entering 雷豹's court. But what happened to his father almost happened to 林动  were it not for 古影 and 雷霹s betrayal. 雷霹 killed his father 雷豹 and assumes the throne. Meanwhile, his brother 雷力 is smitten by 青檀 and plans to take her as his wife. During the wedding ceremony, 雷霹 reveals his intention to absorb 青檀s ice power. 雷力 blocks the attack meant for 青檀 and it is such a big waste to not see his character develop further. It would have been nice if he will join forces with 林动 and 吴云, with he and 吴云 becoming rivals for 青檀's affection since there seems to be a part 2 of this movie. After 林动 beats 雷霹, that's it. We don't even know what happens to 古影 and his apprentice 

Above image reminds me of Naruto's Kurama, and he does look like a nine-tailed fox although 林动 calls him a rat (老鼠). He functions in pretty much the same way as Kurama and is the source of 林动 advanced power.

Might be watching more of these kind of movies.