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Posted in: Blu-Ray, Movies, Review | Tagged: Chinese epic, chinese fantasy, Creation of the Gods, Feature Film, Investiture of the Gods, j. r. r. tolkien, lord of the rings, Wuershan
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms: Flawed Chinese Fantasy
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms is a new blockbuster of a classic Chinese fantasy epic but is over-complicated and crowded
Article Summary
- Adaptation of 16th-century saga 'Creation of the Gods' struggles with complex plot.
- Director Wuershan's trilogy criticized for excessive CGI and lackluster script.
- Film examines power struggle themes similar to Western classics like Lord of the Rings.
- 'Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms' hits Blu-Ray and DVD on May 28th.
Creation of the Gods 1: Kingdom of Storms is a curiosity, an ambitious but overcooked adaptation of the 16th-century Chinese fantasy saga Creation of the Gods, or Investiture of the Gods. Director Wuershan set out to make a trilogy that he intends to be the new definitive cinematic adaptation of the saga in the post-Lord of the Rings era of CGI movies, but he doesn't overcome the problems of the complicated epic or the increasingly dull overuse of CGI effects in movies. Its biggest flaws are in the script, but they are the same flaws as the original book: it's long, crowded, and complicated.
Creation of the Gods is a long and complicated saga about the eventual naming of a new pantheon of gods. It begins with a hated king whose actions, influenced by his favourite concubine, whose really a fox spirit, lead to endless wars with rival kingdoms. Men serving under their kings try to keep things under control as more demons enter the fray. The gods have pledged not to interfere but to introduce a divine scroll that can gift godhood to whoever is named. Whoever controls the scroll will have the power to name anyone as a new god. There's an allegorical satire always at the heart of Creation of the Gods, a commentary on warring for power. The story's central theme is what good men should do if they serve bad kings or are the sons of bad men. It also follows a common theme of Western fantasy sagas: the yearning for a good king to restore peace.
You could say that Creation of the Gods is the Chinese answer to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, written four centuries before Tolkien decided to write his own fantasy saga uber myth of Western fantasy. Like Toikien's epic, Creation of the Gods is a fictional story that partly retells the story of China's warring kingdoms and Chinese court politics blended with folklore and mythology to create a new myth. The original book is by Xu Zonglin, but there's some dispute over who really wrote it and how many authors were behind it. Many of the gods in Creation of the Gods have become popular characters in Chinese pop culture, such as the real-life strategic genius Zhang Ziya and hot-headed trickster godling Ne Zha, who had hit animated fantasy movies made about them in recent years.
One of the issues with Creation of the Gods is that everyone in China knows the book, but very few people in the West know it despite it being a classic in Chinese literary canon. The characters and storylines are already familiar to the Chinese public. That might have helped it become one of the big box-office hits in China in 2023. In the West, the movie is a tougher sell. Despite director Wuershan reportedly auditioning over 1,000 people to find the best actors for the roles, even training some of them from scratch in acting, horseback riding, martial arts, and archery, the film feels overstuffed with CGI FX and lacks a strong directorial vision. It looks like every big fantasy epic we're now used to, including the standard procedure of turning a 1,000-page book into a blockbuster movie trilogy. However, if you're interested in Chinese literature and fantasy, Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms is a decent start.
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms is out on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 28th.
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms
7/10
A blockbuster movie of one of China's key fantasy epic novels that dates all the way back to the 16th Century, the first in a trilogy, this has the same flaws as the book which is that it's overcooked and overcomplicated. This movie lacks a strong directorial vision and is overladen with CGI, but it still has spectacle and chivalrous heroes waging war against hated kings while gods and demons interfere. As a primer for Chinese literature and fantasy, it's a decent start.
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