Xin feng shen jiang zi ya

The Legend of Jiang Ziya falls into the live action kung fu comic book genre that seems to be a staple of recent Chinese films. Part Thor, part Crouching Tiger, it's a frothy, simple story of a a god that protects the local village who is then cast out among the humans to atone for some missteps. Seemingly aimed at a younger, or certainly a less sophisticated branch of the proletariat, you don't need to spend a lot of time analyzing the subtleties of the plot as it's right out front. Deep cinema this ain't but to its credit the film never gets dull.

I think the only disappointment is that the CGI is hit and miss, more often on the miss side. The rampaging Demon Fish that torments the village is almost comically stylized, but I suppose that could be justified as one element of the tradition/mythically heavy story-line that could be enhanced by links to common scroll painting conventions. The message of the duty of the one to look out for the many surely made the boys in Beijing happy but it's not so in your face that it detracts from an entertaining film - within the constraints of the genre naturally.