The Yin Yang Master

Which Yin Yang Master to Chose

It's really not fair to compare this to the Yon Yang Master: Dream of Eternity that was also just completed but I really cannot help but think of both when reviewing this movie.

Let me start by stating I am a huge Chen Kun fan and also a Mark Chao fan so I was looking forward to see how both portrayed the character. I was not disappointed in either portrayal. Mark Chao is an expert on emotions and making you feel for the character without even speaking, while Chen Kun is a master at complex characters that are neither a hero or a bad person, just watch his masterful portrayal of Ning Yi in Rise of the Phoenixes. As for the rest of the acting, hands down Dream of Eternity was better in my opinion - Olivia Wang and Duo Wang were absolutely fantastic. So I found the A=acting of Yin Yang Master to be acceptable but not great for Chen Kun.

I saw another review say the two movies is like comparing a Marvel movie to a Star Wars movie. I agree with that but maybe not in the way it was intended. Which leads me to the story. I felt this version of the story was more about special effects and less about a story. I was never invested in Qingming and Boya's friendship, in fact I was never even sure they were friends in this movie other than one drinking evening. Also, the relationship with Qingming and his master, never felt fleshed out. I felt more in the first 10 minutes about Qingming and his master in Dream of Eternity than I did in the entire TheYin Yang Master movie. The stories are very different.

Finally rewatch value, I have really no inclination to re-watch The Yin Yang Master. When I finished I simply thought OK. I have already watched Dream of Eternity four times.

If you are a Chen Kun fan than you will enjoy his exceptional and nuisances performance. If you like special effects than this movie is well done and definitely goes further into the demon realm.

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Cute Monsters, Beautiful Story & Chen Kun

I've been waiting for this Movie because of course Chen Kun, and also because it's been quite some time there's pretty much Good Chinese Costume Movie.

What's good about this movie is the emotion, relationship between the character ( including the animated one), and how the story flows. For me it's pretty much quite obvious who is the bad guy judging by the Trailer and the Cast, so no big surprise. But regardless, I do still enjoy this Movie.

Bai Ni and Qin Ming definitely my two fave char, their chemistry is just strong for them, it's love in a bittersweet and sincere one. Boya, the Red Monster and Shen Le has this unique relationship due to circumstances, they start off bickering and ends up helping each other. I'm also very fond with the somehow all the monsters, some of they are just adorable.You can feel the family bonding in this movie a lot, especially all the scenes in Qin Ming house, how every char behave towards each other are just heartwarming.

I couldn't talk this movie without the acting of Chen Kun, as Qin Ming he gave such a great presence, the acting superb, and he's able to tone down a little bit for this movie in my opinion as he can be very domineering but he somehow let the other character shine with their own story. I love Shen Yue acting, she's such a funny character and it suit her appearance. William Chan also did a good job here.

The CGI for me is pretty good, from overall production I can see how much they put efforts on the details. It's a movie worth your time to enjoy!

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Bridge to Terabithia

If you've seen the other movie, you might be wondering if they are two parts but they are actually different with the same concept. Because I've seen the Dream of Eternity first, I couldn't help but compare but it was clear as soon as it started that though the protagonists are the same, the story itself and the execution are completely different.

This version focused a lot more on its adventure aspect and the choice of humans and monsters instead of humans and demons differentiated both straight away. Whilst the visual effects on both films are both amazing in their own ways, the pacing is where I found the deciding factor was. Dream of Eternity's strength lies on its characters and their strong relatability to the viewers mixed with the solidly directed storyline, amongst all the other well-executed factors that made it such an enjoyable and stunning film for me.

Here, I found the pacing really offset the impact of everything. I found the climax a bit too quick where the buildup seem to have just been starting, leaving not much of a strong impression after everything's been done. And if you are expecting the same level of bromance Qingming and Boya had, I'd say to lower your expectations. If I hadn't watched Dream of Eternity first, I wouldn't have appreciated Boya's character here as much. Qingming on the other hand, both actors in both movies have offered different interpretations to Qingming's character and they really have offered different sides and appeal to them. However, the villain is not quite as good and at times felt a bit tacky and like I was watching a children's movie (and I'm not sure if it has anything to do with this being based off of a game). Unfortunately, it didn't have the same finesse and classiness its counterpart had.

Overall, still a good watch especially if you liked Dream of Eternity. It's nice to be able to see a different spin to the story but unlike the latter, it wasn't as stunning and didn't have much of a lasting impression that DoF had. It reminded me a lot of Bridge to Terabithia though which helped me connect to the monsters especially Red Ghost and the ferrets later on.

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A colourful depiction of a dark tale

As a passionate fan of fantasy genre and an old admirer of Chen Kun and Zho Xun, I'd waited patiently for this film to be on Netflix and I wasn't disappointed.....


Story: Fantasy worlds and Chinese xianxia with demons (monsters) and human stories has always been attractive to me and I must admit, at least in films, I've been rarely let down. I haven't played the game but "TYYM" has an interesting and involving plot. Story is said nicely and the pace is right so you'd barely feel it's 2 hours long.


Not having any prior knowledge of the story, at the end I was able to grasp characters' thoughts, motives. backgrounds and growth. Characters were introduced well and their first impressions kind of showed their personalities. World building and plot structure is fantastic and believable. Even though, I would've liked it to explore characters more deeply. Also, the film spent too much of the screen time to reach the bridge scene thus the last plot twist after that was a bit bland.


Cast: Chen Kun is excellent as cunning, mysterious yet internally struggling Qingming, he has a boyish aura around him that make him look the perfect young and rather vulnerable half human/half demon. Zhuo Xun is great as calm and powerful Baini as well. Their on screen chemistry and harmony shine as always and over shadow the supporting, younger characters.


CGI: TYYM has excellent and very real CGIs. I've watched too many CGIed films so I have many material to compare and I say it's good! Most of the side characters and nearly all background ones are monsters, despite this animations aren't glaring or cartoonish ( like Chen Kun's other fantasy "Zhong Kui and Snow girl ..."). Animals and demons' features are detailed and fight scenes are choreographed tastefully and artistically. My own favourite was Red Evil Ghost, lol.


All in all I really enjoyed this film and I would like to think the post credit animation means a sequel is in mind, since the world-building was so excellent and characters had potential for more adventures. Maybe in the meantime I would take a chance with the game!

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Pretty packaging but plot misses the point

Technically, this movie visually was a feast—all pretty, bright colors and CGI throughout. Chen Kun as Qing Ming was also very pretty and of course Wang Likun as the Peach Blossom Fairy was absolutely gorgeous. But honestly while I was really looking forward to seeing it when it released, having just come off the high of Mark Chao/Deng Lun's Yin Yang Master, I just couldn't "get" the film once I started watching.

The two characters that were supposed to be relatable to the audience, Shen Le (Shen Yue) and Yuan Boya (Qu Chuxiao) ended up feeling irrelevant and annoying; it felt like they were just there to conveniently push the plot along at certain moments and be clueless/weak/helpless the rest so Qing Ming and co. could save them and be cool. I had trouble connecting emotionally with the cast—that is, I couldn't buy their sudden camaraderie. One minute they didn't get along and the next there's an impromptu drinking session where everyone gets drunk around a table and smiles and are friends? So when the "final battle" happens over that bridge above a cliff, they can all rally together and be angsty at the male lead (Qing Ming) as he angsts about his past? And then the whole thing just ends on a cliffhanger with a blatant open ending that leaves me unsatisfied and plot elements unresolved? Look, the other yin yang master movie did this too but they at least wrapped up the main story in the first movie first! It can stand alone just fine! This one makes me think of a movie missing a limb or something—or maybe a heart, because I couldn't get the emotional cues (and I cry really easy at stuff!) and no matter how sad or awful some characters' past were I just felt bored seeing it and wish they'd move on to clarify what was going on with the main storyline first!

Granted, my memory of this film is a bit fuzzy now but my impression of it remains (I even watched it twice when it first came out to make sure I didn't miss anything, the plot was just so fast and zippy). It just gives an impression of "let's bring all the cast together to highlight how cool and tragic Chen Kun's Qing Ming is and set it up for a sequel later." The overall impression of the movie is a lot of style (like the other Yin Yang Master) but not so much substance, and if you dig too deep into the plot you find that it is generally kinda empty. You can't just look hot and broody and expect the audience to sympathize with you based on your looks! That's just superficial stuff, it won't resonate!

Also, I can't remember a single song or track from this movie while I still remember the main insert song + leitmotifs from the other one. Nothing resonated enough with me to stick! All I remember is that one colorful fight scene with all the sliding doors...but you can't use a fight scene to prop up an entire story, you know.

Don't take my word for it though—watch it yourself. I can't help but think that others feel the same way, since YYM:DOE (Dream of Eternity) inspired so much from it and this one...just doesn't. Look, you can always check fanworks to gauge audience reaction to a work. Both yin yang master movie fandoms are tiny overseas, but there are currently 17 fanfics for this movie on AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org/tags/%E4%BE%8D%E7%A5%9E%E4%BB%A4%20%7C%20Sh%C3%AC%20Sh%C3%A9n%20L%C3%ACng%20%7C%20The%20Yin-yang%20Master%20(2021)/works) compared to the 748 for the other one (https://archiveofourown.org/tags/%E9%98%B4%E9%98%B3%E5%B8%88%20%7C%20Y%C4%ABn%20Y%C3%A1ng%20Sh%C4%AB%20%7C%20The%20Yin-yang%20Master%20(Movies%20-%20Guo%20Jingming)/works).

I think the numbers speak for themselves.

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Fun but lacks impact

I have to start by saying, as a big positive, I love how this movie expanded the world, and gave us even more visual delights with everyone's spells and the monsters/familiars. The world presented to us in this movie is a much wider, richer, more colourful world than in The Yin Yang Master: Dream of Eternity. However, when it came down to character's emotions and connections with one another, I found myself not feeling anything.

Not only did I feel nothing for these characters, but I couldn't understand their feelings for each other either. We were told they cared, but ultimately what I saw couldn't convince me - they felt poorly developed. Even the villain's motivation felt super weak to me... Comparably, while Dream of Eternity was much more constrained in terms of world-building, emotionally it knew how to make us care about the characters and show how they cared/began to care for one another.

Overall it's a fun movie, but eye-candy alone isn't enough for me, I need meat in the story, and sadly I felt like that's where this movie faltered. Watch if you want a fun 2 hour movie that looks good, but if you're looking for a similar emotional experience you may have had watching Dream of Eternity, you may end up let down.

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Relentless video game

I'm a RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE fan and so Zhou Xun brought me here. I predicted she's be a bait and switch -- and she was -- but it was nice to see another RUYI actor in the lead.

To me this film felt like a video game staged for the big screen. The quest was a video game quest, the actions the stuff of video game players. It didn't feel like real people at all -- which great diminishes a work like this. The story was so busy with plot the characters were nearly irrelevant.

I fear this film is for younger generations who cannot stay awake if two characters speak quietly in a room. That said it is an impressive spectacle. But I had to pause it several times and go take a mental break. If you have a mild headache this piece will turn it into a migraine with 20 minutes.

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This Movie Was Good

I mean everything about this movie was like really good like the clothing was really nice the CG was really good and overall everything just looked really beautiful in the movie but I got to say that I did not like the storyline as much compared to The Yin and Yang Master Dream of Eternity. I just think that Dream of Eternity was a lot better because it made me excited and it pulled me in through out the whole movie. The Yin and Yang Master was good but didn’t pull me in as much but everyone has different opinions so yea please watch it and give your own opinion.😁

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TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN THE FIRST YING YANG MASTER DREAM OF ETERNITY!

This is one good but not as good as the first one (Ying Yang Master Dream of Eternity) and I'm waiting for Long Ye (Jessie Li) to come back because at the end of the first movie, she was still breathing and it seems like she's going to appear in here. This is a completely different movie compared to the first one.

VISUALS:
The visuals are great but not as majestic as the first one. The first movie was so cool it feels like you're watching a Marvel movie. It really is because they copied the portal spell from Doctor Strange making them sued by Marvel. That's why it was cut early in the cinemas in China. This time they made different teleportation spells (because of the Marvel/Doctor Strange issue. It was not as cool as the first Ying Yang Master.

CHARACTERS:
There are no characters from the first movie. They change the whole character. I've waited for Bo Ya (Deng Lun) to appear because he's one of the main characters of the first YYM. Their teamwork was awesome, I miss that. There are new cute CGI characters. I love the cute little demon ❤️

ACTION
There is not so much action here. It really felt like they rely on visuals which were really disappointing (compared to the first one) The story was ok. Everything was just fine.

OVERALL: If you haven't watched the first YYM I can recommend you this. Watch this first and then watch Ying Yang Master Dream of Eternity because those movies have different stories but the same main character Qingming (Mark Chao) But if you already watch the first YYM, this can satisfy you. It has fine visuals and of course, it's about Qingming--the Ying Yang Master.

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