The Climbers

"The Climbers" is an unashamedly nationalistic film. Indeed, I don't recall ever seeing so many flags in one feature.

Its focused on China's efforts to climb Mt Everest, conquering the North face. In terms of watch-ability its entertaining but hardly factual. A lot of the action is over the top, by any standards. That said, the cinematography is decent and the scenes, well choreographed.

In terms of story its once again, unsurprisingly, a patriotic affair. Lots of self sacrifice in the name of China's greater glory. Nothing too offensive but one I suspect, that was scripted predominantly with local audiences, in mind.

6/10.

Pan Deng Zhe or The Climbers is a Chinese action-adventure movie inspired by historic events. The movie explores how a group of Chinese mountaineers attempts to ascend Mount Everest from the perilous north side. The film exposes the intense relationships between the mountaineers and the challenges related to the expedition.

The movie has been shot on location in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The settings are therefore quite authentic and the landscapes are absolutely breathtaking. Lead actor Wu Jing conducted a cold tolerance training before the shooting and his dedication shows off in a convincing performance. The intense scenes on the mountain have been filmed with great care in form of emotional acting skills and impressive special effects.

The movie also has a few downsides. The numerous highly emotional relationships between the members of the expedition feel somewhat exaggerated and only distract from the already fascinating main plot and the stunning mountaineering scenes. As many other Chinese productions, this film has also an extremely strong patriotic side as it's constantly claimed that Mount Everest is a Chinese mountain that must be climed by Chinese mountaineers which has to be proven and shown to the entire world.

If you are willing to ignore the overtly emotional side stories and the strong propaganda, you will discover a good mountaineering film that should please fans of movies such as Vertical Limit. The settings and special effects alone are worth watching this movie as its high budget shows off quite impressively. To leave an even better mark, this movie should have had less dramatic side stories, less propaganda and more skilled actresses and actors.

I'm fine with the propaganda, it's blatant enough to ward off those who can't stand it.

However, the film still disappoints me. The romance is just too out of place during the whole story, and it weakens the courage and nationalistic pride that the film intended to convey. I felt thoroughly embarrassed during what was supposed to be the climax of the film. The characters are depicted badly, the music is tiring, and the plot is very predictable, but that's commonplace for most films I've seen of the same genre. Due to these, I found it hard to empathise with any of the characters. However, the performance of the actors is nice, the stirring of emotions is forced yet moving, so the film is somewhat enjoyable.

I don't know where the low ratings come from. This movie had excitement,tension, action,romance,great cinematography and was well edited. If you enjoy movies like Vertical Limit and Everest then you will love this. I had to write this review because I did not see how the rating was so low and it should be seen.

He can fly through the air over a vast crevasse and save his entire climbing team from surefire icy death, he can save the damsel in distress by using his manly back to block a ten ton ice shard from falling on his beloved princess, he can run the 3 minute assault course in 2 min 30 secs - Yes Fang Wuzhou is the Chinese superman - Fang Wuzhou is the man!!!

Ok so the film is more fantastical in some respects than one would expect in the West but I think that adds to the enjoyment of the movie and makes it more fantasy and fun and reminiscent of the days of movies like Sinbad & The Eye Of The Tiger and other gloriously over the top fantasy movies. Yes it is of course political and patriotic but that seems to be the Chinese way and to be honest as long as the movie entertains I am not too bothered with that.

The acting to me seems well over the top but I am not Chinese so can only judge from a western viewpoint; I am sure the Chinese viewers think it is perfectly a cinematic normal for them. I did find the romance angle very well done and even had a tear in my eye at the end but then again I am a bit of a big Jessie when it comes to these things. It is very different from what westerners perceive as romance ie The Chinese seem to veer more to the "treat em mean, keep em keen" and that is probably more realistic than our view of romance to be fair but it did still have me in Big Girls Blouse mode lol. Poor old Fang Wuzhou I did feel for him in the end and if a movie can elicit some emotion from the viewer then it cannot be half bad!

Unlike the recent Scifi disasters from China I actually did quite enjoy this. The special effects and CGI are quite realistic and thrilling in a different way than Vertical Limit was; I still prefer Vertical Limit, Cliffhanger or Everest but it is a decent nights viewing and certainly does not deserve less than an average 5/10. It almost gets an extra star for the Chinese Superman Fang Wuzhou! Long live Fang Wuzhou!!!!