Watches
January 03, 2023
It's 2023 and the onslaught of Chinese straight-to-streaming genre cinema continues. Mountain Porter brings more tomb-raiding fun (again). Stanley Tong is attached to this production, but that seems to have had little impact on the final product. What you get is a pleasantly condensed, fantastical adventure that leads a group of people down some ancient tombs.
Zhe Gushao's father got lost on an expedition looking for a mystical artifact. Zhe survived but finds it difficult to process the disappearance of his dad. The artifact is needed to lift the curse of a nearby village, fifteen years later Zhe joins a new expedition, hoping to unearth the artifact and learn more about the fate of his father.
The production values are slightly higher than usual, but that's about the only real difference. The CG is still a little shoddy, the plot is extremely derivative and basic and the performances are sufficient but nothing more. Where the film excels is in the fantasy and adventure elements, which is what these films are all about. Very fun genre filler in other words, just keep em coming.