The Yin Yang Master

For pure popcorn fun, what's not to love here. Chinese take on fantasy with pretty good VFX. Magic, monsters and swordfights galore. Higher tier than a lot of others in the genre.

Earlier this year, there was just another film with a very similar title, "The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity," directed by Guo Jingming. This was based on the 1986 Japanese novel series "Onmyoji" by Baku Yumemakura. This new one directed by Li Weiran, entitled simply "The YinYang Master" is a totally different film, and was based on a 3D RPG strategy game also called "Onmyoji" by NetEase Games. Both had protagonists named Qingming and Boya, but that was just about all they had in common.

There were some notable actors in the cast. Regarded in the same level of acting excellence as her contemporary Zhang Ziyi, Zhou Xun achieved a rare grand slam as Best Actress for her role in "The Equation of Love and Death" (2008). Chen Kun has also had an acclaimed film career behind him, with films like "The Knot" (2004). Among the younger cast members, the most popular is the pretty and charismatic Shen Yue, who played Dong Sanchai in the 2018 reboot of "Meteor Garden."

Like the previous Yin Yang Master film, this film was also a rich showcase of the progressive state of special visual effects in China. The main locations, namely the Yin Yang Bureau, the Red Tower and Qingming's garden, were all beautifully designed and executed. Most remarkable here were the Disney-approximate computer-animated three-dimensional creatures which were in close interactive scenes with the human characters, particularly the naughty ferrets and the delightfully cute Red Ghost.

The climactic battle on the bridge across what looked like the natural stone pillars of Zhangjiajie was also a breathtaking spectacle, even if the designs of the grotesque multi-tentacled giant hand monster and the bizarre make-up of Cimu (William Chan) were not too well-done. It was just a bit of a disappointment for me that the special effects of Qingming's encounter with the head demon Xiangliu felt rushed and was not at par with the rest of the film. However, overall, this was a colorful and engaging fantasy entertainment for all ages.

I watched this movie with low expectazion and it turned out awesome. The trailer is not from actual movie, the pictures are. I can gladly reccomend this to anyone who loves fantasy.

Chinese movies are usually not very good. This one is actually better than expected. The main character by Chen Kun acts the best. Others are just so so.

But for real. Boya was there but did actually nothing. After watching the movie with friends we tried to discuss what he did, but it's mission impossible. If they leave out his character, nothing even will change.

Anyway, QingMing was superb and the CGI awesome. Just give me more QingMing! (and give him some medicine for his back... must be hurt from all this carry)