海大鱼 [Enormous Legendary Fish] (2020)

 Last year I was able to watch one of China's best animated films 大鱼海棠 which is based on the classic 山海经. A few weeks ago I chanced upon 海大鱼 on Youtube and I don't know if I should be happy because I am at least not disturbed, unlike after watching 大鱼海棠. Anyway these days I watch light movies to relax because work has become too much and I have to divide my time well between my full time job and chores, and also my me time playing one of the hottest otome games on Google Play... in four servers! 

I'll make this brief so I can watch an interesting online lecture I found earlier. 海大鱼 has the folk belief or story 海神娶亲 (sea god gets a wife) as main backdrop. Ali is an orphan whose friend is an official. One day she is named as the next lady to be sent out to the sea as offering to the sea god. Her official friend betrays her but eventually tries to search for her. When Ali came to the sea palace, she sees her husband who has green hideous face, but keeps calm. They are suddenly attacked and Ali helps her husband remove one of the darts. (At this point I was thinking if this is Chinese version of Beauty and the Beast...) She eventually rescues a small fish who turns out to be a sea spirit. This sea spirit rescues Ali from drowning when she is attacked while taking a bath. (At this point, viewer should have the suspicion that sea spirit and husband is one and the same, or maybe I have been watching too many movies that surprises are very rare.) So to cut a long story short, husband and sea spirit turn out to be the same person. Ali's male friend dies. Husband has a super jealous wife who pretends to be Ali's servant and who is actually the one behind the attack on their wedding night. She also tries to kill Ali after realizing her husband is already in love with her rival. Basically the wife and husband's stepmother are in connivance and are the ones who fabricated the idea that ladies should be sent to the sea god so that these wives can bear an heir and the two can dispose of the ladies. 

So while the movie ends happily with Ali preferring to stay in the sea palace with her love, there are unanswered questions. Why doesn't sea spirit love his wife? In ancient Chinese belief system, although men are allowed to have more than one wife, he is still expected to at least show respect to his wife. If sea spirit is a virtuous person he should never allow his wife to serve a new wife as that is humiliating her. And there is also the double persona question although I know I shouldn't be making a big deal out of it, but Ali is voluntarily in an extramarital affair with sea spirit. She is technically married to her hideous husband but she becomes pregnant with whom she thought is another man. So... morality wise, this movie seem  to deviate from the norms.

伏魔济公 (2020)

I recently watched a Chinese movie about Luohan (罗汉) or arhats following YT recommendations. These days YT recommends a lot of Chinese folklore inspired movies, especially tales about local/ lesser known immortals. 济公 is someone I know of since my childhood days. Because I was first educated in a Protestant school, and have been immersed in Christian traditions, I find 济公 a rather weird god because as my parents explain, he likes alcohol and meat despite being Buddhist and despite Buddhism's advocacy to not consume these two. But anyway, Chinese pantheon of gods is quite different from western traditions where there is very good boundaries between good and evil. In eastern beliefs, these two spheres are blurred and many gods, like Greek ones, cause harm to humans every now and then. They possess humanlike characteristics and behave pretty much like the humans who fabricated them.

伏魔济公 is about 降龙罗汉 who descends to the mortal realm and becomes a normal human being whose name is 李修缘, a happy go lucky guy from a well-to-do family who meets 柳絮, a female demon-slayer. He is destined to defeat the evil lord/ prevent the revival of 蟠螭 when the seven stars align so before his real powers awaken, the evil lord and his minions plan to take his life. During this time, 李修缘 meets friends and allies like 土地公, also a very familiar deity especially for Southern Chinese since we offer food to him every lunar month. One critical role is another Luohan's whose name is 伏虎. Now 伏虎 is much more popularly known as Maitreya Buddha, at least based on my experience, Maitreya seems to be the most well known of the arhats. (While watching this movie I think of my trip to a big temple in Ipoh, Malaysia where the 18 arhats are found. At that time I couldn't appreciate them because I know so little about Buddhist mythology, it being like the inspiration for the super confusing Marvel Universe IMHO lol). Back to the story: 伏虎 collects  降龙罗汉's power items, the calabash bottle, the fan, and his kasaya (袈裟) from three other deities who protect them, and even gets attacked by friends when he is mistaken for an impostor by 柳絮 and company. The kasaya, just to explain to those who do not know anything about the rich cultures of Asia, are Buddhist robes. 

When at first 李修缘 accepts his destiny as 降龙罗汉, self-doubts set in when 柳絮 gives her life to save him from the evil lord. 李修缘 cries in remorse saying he is just a normal person, that it is because of him being the 降龙罗汉 that his parents, villagers, and 柳絮 died. He runs away and comes back to the village he saved before, only without his power items. The village is attacked by demons and one woman is burned at the stakes because the villagers would not bring 李修缘 out after hiding him in one of the houses. The little girl cries for her burning mother and this triggers 降龙罗汉's memories of drinking tea with an old man. 降龙罗汉 comments on the tea being too strong and the old man replies that what you see/feel may not be real, a very Buddhist way of discerning truth and illusions. He comes to his senses and fights off the demons, then proceeds to stop the evil lord from reviving 蟠螭. It turns out that 柳絮 still lives and the evil lord holds her hostage to use her blood for the revival ritual.

Would I recommend this movie? Truth be told, this is poorly made. When villagers hear of impending demon attack, they "hurry" to leave but they are not scrambling. It's actually funny to see them move like there is no sense of urgency. The plot is very very cliche, a seemingly mortal man finding himself to be the savior against his wishes, and with a love interest to boot. The first part of the movie offers a lot of slapstick comedy with 李修缘 and his page out to get 柳絮, and also with 伏虎 negotiating with other deities to have the three power items. In particular, I like the exchange between 伏虎 and the wealth god who demands safekeeping fees in exchange for the kasaya because he is both a wealth god and a money-grubber. On the other hand, I like movies based on mythology stuff so this is one of those movies that can be a good introduction to Chinese folk beliefs.

Would I still watch movies of this kind? Hell yes, they will not be my priority. I still go for more meaningful and substantial movies, the kind with good cinematography, good story line, and very good acting,

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.