Jingming Guo

Qi Ling and Yin Chen embark on a journey to save Gilgamesh, the last wish of the former Duke. Their trip is made a lot harder when You Ming, Thalia and Qi La show up. They're hellbent on stopping our heroes from reaching their goal, and they've got some mean tricks up their sleeves to accomplish just that.

Guo is a young director, so it's no surprise that the film sometimes feels like an elongated cut scene from an unreleased Final Fantasy game. It's just not quite cinematic enough to be a real masterpiece, but the lore is compelling and intriguing, the action scenes are glorious and the film feels truly epic. The character models are a bit flimsy (faces can look very realistic, but the body language still feels off) and there are definitely some pacing issues, but the fantasy elements are more than sufficient to make me want to go back and watch the first film, while looking forward to the conclusion of this trilogy. Good stuff.

The plot is relatively intricate, following Qing Ming who goes to Tiandu to fulfill his master's last wish. Once there he gets involved in a pretty dark mystery involving the princess. At the same time, the structure of the film is pretty basic, with gradual reveals that uncover a lot of hidden drama between the main characters and leave no mystery behind.

The sets and costumes are lush, the cinematography is beautiful and the score has some excellent music. The problem here is that the drama is a little too heavy-handed and plentiful for a film like this, which creates some pacing issues. Other than that, a fine film, it's clear Guo feels at home in this genre.

Dukes have magical powers that help them protect the weak. They each have a disciple, someone they bond with and help to protect them. Qi Ling is an orphan who runs into a Duke as becomes his disciple. What seems like a great opportunity at first, turns into a battle of life and death when one of the Dukes is trying to do a power grab.

Once you get used to the subpar animation, there's quite a bit to like. The lore is interesting, the fights are pretty over-the-top and the fantasy elements feel well-developed. I'm a bit bummed I saw the sequel first, that's obviously the better film, but I did have a pretty decent time, something I didn't really expect after the videogame-like opening.