Hanson and the Beast

This was a fun movie to watch and while I admit I went into the movie to see Liu Yifei performance (and she was stunning!) but I stayed and was impressed by the acting of the entire cast.

The movies starts out as goofy and had a satirical tone, which brought quite a few good laughs. It was a good mix of romance and comedy.

The second part of the movie you can see the costumes and production went up a notch and they had a good sense of world building. As If the backdrop of Shanghai city wasn't impressive enough, they created a whole parallel twilight world alongside with it. While the later half of the movie was more of a darker tone, but they still kept a great sense of humor even during some dramatic scenes.

The CGI that was used blended in quite well, and worked to create the fairy tale like world. At times I thought I was watching a Live action remake of some anime serie. I was pleasantly entertained, came to watch Liu Yifei, but stayed for the movie!

This film is unique, one can tell that there was a lot of passion by the director, Yang Xiao (there was enough action plus CGI with it). I feel that there were some gaps maybe due to edits with the love narrative. Its a long film, running close to 2 hours and explores taboo themes, from sexual transgressions, trans identity to shadow governments, in the film there is the B.O.T that regulates transmorphing or "transfiguring" animal gods with ordinary humans.

If you are open-minded with this film; it can serve you great entertainment. Xiao had a lot of requirements for actors, to look ordinary or stylized. The strongest part is the main protagonists getting away from villains on a film set, kind of a film within a film idea.

If you want to relax yourself and take a break and watch some comedy then this movie would be a good choice for you.

Yes, the movie could have been something exceptional but they wanted to make it more romantic and comedy rather than focusing on a dramatic storytelling. The movie was fun to watch and had some unexpected moments with a simple story.

According to my rating strategy : Story:1/2, Actors:1/2, Viewer:1/2, Directing, Cinematography and Soundtrack:1/2, Task Fulfillment:1/1, Wow Factor: 0/1

This movie has found a way to breakthrough a lot of stereotypes and present a fantastic comedy where the so called regular reality and the fantasy world run parallel but only a few are allowed to see it. Ultimately, it's a story about love; modern love which goes beyond any barriers you could possibly imagine. The acting is brilliant and totally convincing. If you like fantasy garnished with a pinch of sense of humor in a sci-fi/ fantasy environment, you shouldn't miss this movie: entertainment granted!