Kûkai

Chen Kaige shows a stunning artistic ambition in this Legend of Demon Cat. The story behind the mystery is simply beyond imagination, and the production design, costume, hair & makeup, music score and visual effects along the way are just impressive. This film is a spectacle about Chinese culture and history, and the way it presents them is unique and surprising. Besides the dazzling visuals, believable narratives and characters also help convince the audience that the unfolding fiction is real.

Chen Kaige's best film since 21th century. As the biggest Chinese-Japanese co-production film ever, Yao Mao Zhuan is very different from the Hollywood cliches. I can feel the flow between each shot, just like traditional Chinese ink-wash painting. And the story structure is very interesting. It splits into two parts, these two parts are like mirrors, you can find same symbols, characters and plots in both sides. And all those things come together, make the magnificent Tang Dynasty comes alive. However, Chen Kaige is not satisfied in telling the greatness of Tang, but also the dark side, the politics and humanity.

The spirit of a murdered woman takes the form of a black cat and wreaks havoc upon a Tang dynasty city, collecting debts along the way. The cat even enters dreams. She was abandoned by a heartless person whose greatest happiness was to control others. Historical figures including a famous poet, Bai Juyi, and a visiting Japanese monk, Kukai, attempt to appease the woman's restless, vengeful soul.

A real city from the past was built as the set. It took over five years and $200 million! Chen Kaige, present for this world premiere and director's cut seen at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, remarked that it takes eight hours to walk completely through this city. The film is worth watching for the set alone, plus the elaborate, colorful and beautiful costumes and people. I love one of the main themes of the film, which is standing up for human dignity. Legend of the Demon Cat is fast paced, which is both its weakness and its strength. Based on a bestselling novel by Baku Yumemakura.

In fact I was reading recently a bit about Japanase buddhism and Kukai, the founder of Japanese Shingon Buddhism. So I felt excited when I learned there is a recent high budget film with him as the main protagonist as it seemed.

My expectations turned out to be utterly misplaced. Neither he is important, nor his buddhism. If not for his robes, I could have overlooked he's a monk. It doesn't even play any important role in the plot he's a Japanese in China. Perhaps I'm missing some important hints, but to me all the film seemed to be composed of such disjonted pieces.

And when stripped of them, the plot becomes just a decent historical ghost story overusing and overexposing the computer generated special effects at the expense of telling a coherent story and portraying a least a few somewhat believable characters. In the end even the "demon cat" itself failed to convince me with its overcomplicated and overexalted story, failing at the most crucial point of the whole movie in the simple task of telling a believable tragedy.

The story is a drag and could have been better...then this movie would have been awesome!..