THE ANIMATION STUDIO "ORIGINAL FORCE" IS THE ONE CARRYING THE MORTAL JOURNEY FRANCHISE!!!There's really…
Same animation studio "Original Force" showing their talent to animate (flying) cultivator's soft landing in another donghua series (Shrouding the Heavens):
https://youtu.be/ycQZtu-Z-_g?t=586 (It's surreal how she just swoops into the scene to land softly on her feet [2nd spot to the right]. You can FEEL the distance from which she approached her landing spot!)
THE ANIMATION STUDIO "ORIGINAL FORCE" IS THE ONE CARRYING THE MORTAL JOURNEY FRANCHISE!!!There's really…
Another animation studio that tackles the same scene would do something like: cultivator leaps off flying mount. Cut to view from the ground showing cultivator's feet touching the ground.
Like Huawei chickening out from making electric vehicles because their Excel spreadsheet told them they would incur massive costs and losses. While Xiaomi just went ahead and do it anyways.
It takes a kind of fearlessness and bravery on the part of the animation studio to follow through the entire "jump sequence" to the end instead of cheating via cutting (out the part that mattered the most -- which was to make you FEEL like that bird mount she was on was really THAT high and far away; If you just cut to the ground view of her feet touching the ground without showing the entire jump sequence, you lose the scale of height and distance FEELING!!)
THE ANIMATION STUDIO "ORIGINAL FORCE" IS THE ONE CARRYING THE MORTAL JOURNEY FRANCHISE!!!
There's really nothing outstanding about Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan story itself. The proof is that readers of novels much prefer to read Renegade Immortal than Fanren.
As for the donghua, the animation studio is doing all the heavy lifting to make the series cool. Just take a look at this scene (cultivator flies off flying mount to land on the ground):
It's cool effects like this that keep viewers like me and others interested in the series. If this was done by some other studio than Original Force, the Fanren series wouldn't have as much mass appeal!
(I don't watch this, it's only in 1080p which I find rather "offensive" resolution for such a fine donghua series. BUT, I use this list to rip the ENG subs to pair them with the 4K raw videos I downloaded from elsewhere...)
S1 of the drama correlates with Ep1-64 of the donghua. BUT then the donghua gets really sick. I've only seen up to Ep146 of the donghua so far, but wow, it's like even better than S1 when it eventually gets adapted into an S2 drama. There are so many scenes involving the vast oceans and "paradise islands". I love this kind of stuff! (Whereas you hardly seen a body of water in S1 other than the pond where Han Li's first master lived)
Han Li also literally became Superman (he loses the flying boat and dons on a red cape which gives him super flying speed). There is even a story sub-arc where he gets trapped inside the Phantom Zone of the Superman lore where he cannot use his powers . But the classic Superman movies never did covered the Phantom Zone in depth. But it WAS covered in the Supergirl (1984) movie, where she must arduously work her ways towards the treacherous exit using only her mortal strength or stamina, like in the Fanren donghua.
Basically, don't give up on the S1 drama. S2 will be much better based on what I've seen of the donghua so far...
(BTW, they recently paused airing the donghua at Ep 176, why oh why did I only watched up to Ep 146 today? Well the 4K version is difficult to source, I only managed to get all up to Ep 176 in 4K recently. I never wanted to spoil this excellent donghua series for myself watching it in 1080p. Plus having a wall projector helps to giving this donghua a life-like experience -- the size of the video image I managed to project is almost 3/4th the size of my bedroom wall! That's a humongous image...)
Folks, this movie is NOT Wuxia (which is why it will SIGNIFICANTLY out-perform LoCH movie by Hark Tsui at the box office).
DEEPSEEK Chat: ----------------------
Wuxia (武侠) Key Elements:
- Jianghu: The underground society of martial artists, with its own rules, schools, and conflicts. - The Code of Xia (Xiayi 侠义): A chivalric code emphasizing righteousness, loyalty, courage, and honor. - Supernatural Abilities: Characters can fly ("Qing Gong"), touch pressure points ("Dim Mak"), and channel inner energy ("Qi" or "Neigong").
---------
Especially the last point. When Wu Jing swings his sword, there won't be Qi energy waves nor dragons coming out of the blade to meet his adversary. I don't think anyone can fly in Blades of the Guardians (except maybe carried away by the dust storm). There certainly won't be "Dim Mak" in the movie either.
AND most ppl who star in Blades actually know and practice(d) martial arts unlike Xiao Zhan who had what maybe 6 months to train for the LoCH movie?
This is why most ppl who sat out for LoCH will attend Blades in theater. Wuxia (simply Jin Yong-type) is too COMICAL for ppl to take seriously and spend their hard-earned wallet to watch on the BIG screen.
凡人修仙传奇 (The Game) is out already?https://www.notebookcheck.net/New-free-to-play-MMORPG-launches-on-Steam-with-promising-reviews-but-with-a-major-caveat.1216274.0.htmlMore…
Possible for game to come out on mobile with English translation in the future? Does anyone know?
transformers meghan fox could show up to hanli and he would be like uhhhh yeah no I'm married to the cultivation…
I dropped Transformers after the very first big screen movie. I didn't like how they could disassemble any and every piece of metal and re-mesh them together any way the designer felt like it and call that a robot.
Such "unrestrained" creativity was no longer cool to watch. BUT that's the way Hollywood always operated, as a second rate producer of visual art. Take Marvel Rivals for example, you put a Western IP in the hands of Chinese developers and designers and the result is actually quite amazing!
Seems like it’s taking a break until next season. There’s some comment about it below.
It's not a big deal to wait. Anyone feeling "Mortal's Journey to Immortality" withdrawal symptoms can go watch "Shrouding the Heavens". It's still airing with a new episode weekly and being animated by the same outstanding studio (Original Force), but under the direction of Tencent instead of BiliBili.
Original Force is probably my pick for top animation studio from China. Sometimes in "Mortal's Journey" or "Shrouding the Heavens" you feel like you're not watching cartoon characters and fake environments but ppl and settings that emulate real life.
Compared to something like "Legend of Ravaging Dynasties 1 & 2" CGI movies, I feel works by Original Force is on the same level if not slightly better. They don't rely on using CGI models of known celebrities but still manage to obtain an equal footing in visual output.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBDtviSAv4YBTS motion capture tech is nothing new. They been publicly showing…
Bujingai (the final video game product) after all that "hard work" (NOT, this guy just doing rhythmic solo dancing NOT kungfu fighting) behind the scene doing motion capture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBDtviSAv4YBTS motion capture tech is nothing new. They been publicly showing…
Not only that, if you're a fan of Play Station (1/2/3 or whatever) Chinese-themed 3D action games, then you also came across Bujingai from Japan and watched their BTS video. This was uploaded over 16 years ago:
BASICALLY, take away message is, you CANNOT animate a 3D CGI character (in a Chinese-themed work like donghua series or 3-D action video game) without motion capture technology.
BTS motion capture tech is nothing new. They been publicly showing it since Legend of Ravaging Dynasties (CGI movie) that was released A GOOD DECADE AGO:
(Some ppl claimed they've watched all sorts of donghua but are rather neophytes to anime if they view motion capture technology as something novel. Maybe in the future a lot of these techs will be replaced with AI that have watched humans performed live many times over.)
Every CNY, Chinese movie goers rally around one domestic movie. This movie always makes at least 5 billion RMB. Let's hope that this year, Blades of the Guardians is THAT movie.
Although it is a wuxia genre that has historically underperformed at the box office, I see nothing else being announced that could be this year's CNY top movie. Also, once you attach Wu Jing + action genre to any project... His past records have done really well in this category!
Thanks for the summary🤩😍. Excited about this, grew up watching Yuen WooPing’s WuXia show. This definitely…
'"The Shadow's Edge" grossed RMB 1.2 billion'
Jackie Chan movie b.o.'s are not worth mentioning . 1.2billion RMB is pathetic. Even "crappily" animated movies like Nobody grossed plenty more!
I have a set mental target of over 4.5billion RMB for Blades of the Guardians (the amount Zootopia 2 managed to gross in China). If this target not met, I will come back here and say all Chinese movie goers are suckers for supporting Hollywood movies over domestic!
And remember, to financially break even (becoz of the reshooting of the female lead), Blades of the Guardians will now have to gross something like over 2.5 billion RMB, so do support this movie by watching in the theater if you can!
TARGET AUDIENCE OF MOVIE NOT (40-80 Y.O.) DIE HARD WUXIA FANS
Legend of the Condor Heroes movie by Hark Tsui proved you cannot extract money from this demographics group that makes up most hard core die hard wuxia fans.
Wu Jing actually made this movie for young male audiences who have recently become dads! (I didn't think any old timer contributed seriously to WW2 nor WE1/2 nor Changjin box office figures!)
I think the old wuxia fans need to tame their expectations a little with regards to the movie. The re-appearance of Jet Li as the chief antagonist is a controversy in itself. They're no longer the center of attention being catered to.
I think lots of ppl (old die-hard wuxia fans especially) will need to see a psychiatrist after watching the movie becoz they have pre-conditioned themselves to think Jet Li can only dish out his moves onto the bad guys in a Chinese martial arts movie. (He may have made some kungfu moves in Lethal Weapon but that don't count as a Chinese martial arts movie).
They might accept Jet Li playing the antagonist in a Chinese non-martial arts movie. That would have been something novel to them.
But for Jet Li to actually attack other good Chinese characters? Their brains will explode!
I think to make up for it, Wu Jing will have to star in a xianxia genre movie next. "Aha so you've gone on to destroy the xianxia genre I see!" This move will appease a lot of their anger...
Personally, I think Wu Jing is brilliant. I think it was his idea to recruit Jet Li... TO PLAY THE BAD GUY!! Only him can convince Jet Li to return to the big screen martial arts genre let alone play the bad guy.
The main reason becoz he wanted to be seen as being neutral not taken any sides ( unlike certain posters here -- OMG it's Jet Li that's an automatic pass, must see! Ha ha ha! )
He probably considers other people's feelings especially ppl like Jackie Chan. Can you image if he got Jet to play as his mentor? That'll probably rub Jackie the wrong way like he's trying to take sides siding with Jet and trying to suppress his stardom or try to outdo him. In other words, Wu Jing is a master adept at filmography "diplomacy" or whatever you wanted to call it.
The next thing, I think he's also partially responsible for recruiting Nashi to play the female lead at first. Nashi is NOT exactly the type of smoking hot woman, fall in love at first sight. She's borderline ugly. Here too Wu Jing is trying to be neutral towards the hot young male stars of the current and next generation. He don't want to appear as a lady killer and rub these budding actors the wrong way.
I think the biggest danger Wu Jing is trying to navigate around C-ent is making himself out to be to guy that hogs all the beautiful women to himself. Hence recruiting an ugly actress is probably the safest bet he could have made (diplomacy wise NOT money wise as her recent scandal made a big dent in the movie's production budget)
In short I think this movie shows off some of Wu Jing's brilliant strategizing and navigating around C-ent "politics"!
I don't know why ppl look up to Jet Li as some kind of national hero. 1. He's know to badly hurt / physically…
Man, you post so toxic. Go suck one! Since when I ever personally insulted another poster like you? You know likes attract likes. It's widely known Jet Li is a scumbag. Not my own word, but general consensus everywhere. Only scumbags look up to and support another scumbag...
BTW, I live in North America and hold citizenship there. What purpose does it serve me to blindly support and be patriotic to China? Will China invite me to live there if I spread her ideology? So once again, go suck one Mr. Toxic Poster!
https://youtu.be/ycQZtu-Z-_g?t=586
(It's surreal how she just swoops into the scene to land softly on her feet [2nd spot to the right]. You can FEEL the distance from which she approached her landing spot!)
Like Huawei chickening out from making electric vehicles because their Excel spreadsheet told them they would incur massive costs and losses. While Xiaomi just went ahead and do it anyways.
It takes a kind of fearlessness and bravery on the part of the animation studio to follow through the entire "jump sequence" to the end instead of cheating via cutting (out the part that mattered the most -- which was to make you FEEL like that bird mount she was on was really THAT high and far away; If you just cut to the ground view of her feet touching the ground without showing the entire jump sequence, you lose the scale of height and distance FEELING!!)
There's really nothing outstanding about Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan story itself. The proof is that readers of novels much prefer to read Renegade Immortal than Fanren.
As for the donghua, the animation studio is doing all the heavy lifting to make the series cool. Just take a look at this scene (cultivator flies off flying mount to land on the ground):
https://youtu.be/tvUaryd3wws?list=PLBakWosU0sfhr6k1-ldCYx05AYZ8HwslC&t=178
(It looks so surreal when you watch this in 4K on a projector, like an actual human being made that soft landing from a great height and distance!)
It's cool effects like this that keep viewers like me and others interested in the series. If this was done by some other studio than Original Force, the Fanren series wouldn't have as much mass appeal!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsI4ZD1mV8&list=PLBakWosU0sfhr6k1-ldCYx05AYZ8HwslC&index=112
(I don't watch this, it's only in 1080p which I find rather "offensive" resolution for such a fine donghua series. BUT, I use this list to rip the ENG subs to pair them with the 4K raw videos I downloaded from elsewhere...)
Han Li also literally became Superman (he loses the flying boat and dons on a red cape which gives him super flying speed). There is even a story sub-arc where he gets trapped inside the Phantom Zone of the Superman lore where he cannot use his powers . But the classic Superman movies never did covered the Phantom Zone in depth. But it WAS covered in the Supergirl (1984) movie, where she must arduously work her ways towards the treacherous exit using only her mortal strength or stamina, like in the Fanren donghua.
Basically, don't give up on the S1 drama. S2 will be much better based on what I've seen of the donghua so far...
(BTW, they recently paused airing the donghua at Ep 176, why oh why did I only watched up to Ep 146 today? Well the 4K version is difficult to source, I only managed to get all up to Ep 176 in 4K recently. I never wanted to spoil this excellent donghua series for myself watching it in 1080p. Plus having a wall projector helps to giving this donghua a life-like experience -- the size of the video image I managed to project is almost 3/4th the size of my bedroom wall! That's a humongous image...)
DEEPSEEK Chat:
----------------------
Wuxia (武侠) Key Elements:
- Jianghu: The underground society of martial artists, with its own rules, schools, and conflicts.
- The Code of Xia (Xiayi 侠义): A chivalric code emphasizing righteousness, loyalty, courage, and honor.
- Supernatural Abilities: Characters can fly ("Qing Gong"), touch pressure points ("Dim Mak"), and channel inner energy ("Qi" or "Neigong").
---------
Especially the last point. When Wu Jing swings his sword, there won't be Qi energy waves nor dragons coming out of the blade to meet his adversary. I don't think anyone can fly in Blades of the Guardians (except maybe carried away by the dust storm). There certainly won't be "Dim Mak" in the movie either.
AND most ppl who star in Blades actually know and practice(d) martial arts unlike Xiao Zhan who had what maybe 6 months to train for the LoCH movie?
This is why most ppl who sat out for LoCH will attend Blades in theater. Wuxia (simply Jin Yong-type) is too COMICAL for ppl to take seriously and spend their hard-earned wallet to watch on the BIG screen.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/New-free-to-play-MMORPG-launches-on-Steam-with-promising-reviews-but-with-a-major-caveat.1216274.0.html
More info in this forum thread: https://kisskh.at/discussions/35477-a-record-of-a-mortal-s-journey-to-immortality/148030-the-game
Such "unrestrained" creativity was no longer cool to watch. BUT that's the way Hollywood always operated, as a second rate producer of visual art. Take Marvel Rivals for example, you put a Western IP in the hands of Chinese developers and designers and the result is actually quite amazing!
Original Force is probably my pick for top animation studio from China. Sometimes in "Mortal's Journey" or "Shrouding the Heavens" you feel like you're not watching cartoon characters and fake environments but ppl and settings that emulate real life.
Compared to something like "Legend of Ravaging Dynasties 1 & 2" CGI movies, I feel works by Original Force is on the same level if not slightly better. They don't rely on using CGI models of known celebrities but still manage to obtain an equal footing in visual output.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvquixLOQcM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl1zwaBRgB8&pp (<- video was uploaded over 16 years ago)
BASICALLY, take away message is, you CANNOT animate a 3D CGI character (in a Chinese-themed work like donghua series or 3-D action video game) without motion capture technology.
BTS motion capture tech is nothing new. They been publicly showing it since Legend of Ravaging Dynasties (CGI movie) that was released A GOOD DECADE AGO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkt7xFWIBFg (<- notice video was uploaded over 9 years ago)
(Some ppl claimed they've watched all sorts of donghua but are rather neophytes to anime if they view motion capture technology as something novel. Maybe in the future a lot of these techs will be replaced with AI that have watched humans performed live many times over.)
Although it is a wuxia genre that has historically underperformed at the box office, I see nothing else being announced that could be this year's CNY top movie. Also, once you attach Wu Jing + action genre to any project... His past records have done really well in this category!
Jackie Chan movie b.o.'s are not worth mentioning . 1.2billion RMB is pathetic. Even "crappily" animated movies like Nobody grossed plenty more!
I have a set mental target of over 4.5billion RMB for Blades of the Guardians (the amount Zootopia 2 managed to gross in China). If this target not met, I will come back here and say all Chinese movie goers are suckers for supporting Hollywood movies over domestic!
And remember, to financially break even (becoz of the reshooting of the female lead), Blades of the Guardians will now have to gross something like over 2.5 billion RMB, so do support this movie by watching in the theater if you can!
Legend of the Condor Heroes movie by Hark Tsui proved you cannot extract money from this demographics group that makes up most hard core die hard wuxia fans.
Wu Jing actually made this movie for young male audiences who have recently become dads! (I didn't think any old timer contributed seriously to WW2 nor WE1/2 nor Changjin box office figures!)
I think the old wuxia fans need to tame their expectations a little with regards to the movie. The re-appearance of Jet Li as the chief antagonist is a controversy in itself. They're no longer the center of attention being catered to.
They might accept Jet Li playing the antagonist in a Chinese non-martial arts movie. That would have been something novel to them.
But for Jet Li to actually attack other good Chinese characters? Their brains will explode!
I think to make up for it, Wu Jing will have to star in a xianxia genre movie next. "Aha so you've gone on to destroy the xianxia genre I see!" This move will appease a lot of their anger...
The main reason becoz he wanted to be seen as being neutral not taken any sides ( unlike certain posters here -- OMG it's Jet Li that's an automatic pass, must see! Ha ha ha! )
He probably considers other people's feelings especially ppl like Jackie Chan. Can you image if he got Jet to play as his mentor? That'll probably rub Jackie the wrong way like he's trying to take sides siding with Jet and trying to suppress his stardom or try to outdo him. In other words, Wu Jing is a master adept at filmography "diplomacy" or whatever you wanted to call it.
The next thing, I think he's also partially responsible for recruiting Nashi to play the female lead at first. Nashi is NOT exactly the type of smoking hot woman, fall in love at first sight. She's borderline ugly. Here too Wu Jing is trying to be neutral towards the hot young male stars of the current and next generation. He don't want to appear as a lady killer and rub these budding actors the wrong way.
I think the biggest danger Wu Jing is trying to navigate around C-ent is making himself out to be to guy that hogs all the beautiful women to himself. Hence recruiting an ugly actress is probably the safest bet he could have made (diplomacy wise NOT money wise as her recent scandal made a big dent in the movie's production budget)
In short I think this movie shows off some of Wu Jing's brilliant strategizing and navigating around C-ent "politics"!
BTW, I live in North America and hold citizenship there. What purpose does it serve me to blindly support and be patriotic to China? Will China invite me to live there if I spread her ideology? So once again, go suck one Mr. Toxic Poster!