Where the hell is the storytelling in this film?
I hesitated whether to write this review, but since I invested my time and made it to the very end, I decided to do it anyway.
The film started off quite nicely in terms of visuals. The opening scenes caught my interest, but soon after that came a major disappointment. First and foremost, the overuse of very artificial CGI and green screen was impossible to ignore. The film was advertised as showcasing breathtaking landscapes, yet there were only a few such scenes; most of the “outdoor” settings were clearly shot in a studio. There was far too much music, and for the most part it completely failed to match the atmosphere—rather than immersing me in the world, it constantly pulled me out of it. Unfortunately, these are not the most painful issues this film suffers from.
The two most serious flaws are the problems with the plot and the poor acting.
Where the hell is the storytelling in this film? The film fails to establish any overarching stakes. It does not build its characters. The viewer is told that they are supposed to care about the characters’ fate, but is never given a real chance to root for any of them—we never see how their relationship develops, how it grows, how feelings are born between them. Instead, we are simply informed: “these two love each other, you should root for them.” There is no chemistry between the main characters. Every scene is constructed according to the “tell, don’t show” principle, which in a medium like film is frankly insulting to the audience. Perhaps Tsui Hark assumed that absolutely every viewer had read the books, and that it was enough to say “this is the Venom of the West, he is their enemy,” without ever showing the audience why that is the case. But that assumption is a fundamental mistake. A film must stand on its own as a complete work—and this one does not.
I move on with pain to the acting, which I found shockingly disappointing. I consider Xiao Zhan to be a good actor with a natural style of performance. In his earlier works, he was like a breath of fresh air—sincere, genuine, full of emotion. Here, he was a pathetically wooden presence. There was no subtlety whatsoever. The performance hits the viewer over the head with stupidity and pathos. Yes, this may have been the direction chosen by the director for the character, but that only means the actor’s potential was completely wasted. If I had not known Xiao Zhan from his other roles and had seen this film as my first exposure to him, I would have assumed he wasn’t an actor at all, just a wooden log dressed in a costume.
Do I know what kind of personality any of the characters in this film actually has? No. Do I remember any specific scene from this film three days after watching it? Only vaguely, and not in full. Did this film have any positive aspects at all? Both female actors were beautiful and clearly tried their best, but with material like this, they had nothing to work with.
My positive points go exclusively to the costumes, the horses, Khan, and both female actors. And yes—even though his role was poorly written, Bayaertu truly showed class.
The film started off quite nicely in terms of visuals. The opening scenes caught my interest, but soon after that came a major disappointment. First and foremost, the overuse of very artificial CGI and green screen was impossible to ignore. The film was advertised as showcasing breathtaking landscapes, yet there were only a few such scenes; most of the “outdoor” settings were clearly shot in a studio. There was far too much music, and for the most part it completely failed to match the atmosphere—rather than immersing me in the world, it constantly pulled me out of it. Unfortunately, these are not the most painful issues this film suffers from.
The two most serious flaws are the problems with the plot and the poor acting.
Where the hell is the storytelling in this film? The film fails to establish any overarching stakes. It does not build its characters. The viewer is told that they are supposed to care about the characters’ fate, but is never given a real chance to root for any of them—we never see how their relationship develops, how it grows, how feelings are born between them. Instead, we are simply informed: “these two love each other, you should root for them.” There is no chemistry between the main characters. Every scene is constructed according to the “tell, don’t show” principle, which in a medium like film is frankly insulting to the audience. Perhaps Tsui Hark assumed that absolutely every viewer had read the books, and that it was enough to say “this is the Venom of the West, he is their enemy,” without ever showing the audience why that is the case. But that assumption is a fundamental mistake. A film must stand on its own as a complete work—and this one does not.
I move on with pain to the acting, which I found shockingly disappointing. I consider Xiao Zhan to be a good actor with a natural style of performance. In his earlier works, he was like a breath of fresh air—sincere, genuine, full of emotion. Here, he was a pathetically wooden presence. There was no subtlety whatsoever. The performance hits the viewer over the head with stupidity and pathos. Yes, this may have been the direction chosen by the director for the character, but that only means the actor’s potential was completely wasted. If I had not known Xiao Zhan from his other roles and had seen this film as my first exposure to him, I would have assumed he wasn’t an actor at all, just a wooden log dressed in a costume.
Do I know what kind of personality any of the characters in this film actually has? No. Do I remember any specific scene from this film three days after watching it? Only vaguely, and not in full. Did this film have any positive aspects at all? Both female actors were beautiful and clearly tried their best, but with material like this, they had nothing to work with.
My positive points go exclusively to the costumes, the horses, Khan, and both female actors. And yes—even though his role was poorly written, Bayaertu truly showed class.
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