Critics in catfight over ‘Demon Cat’ movie
The first half of the film is really attractive, especially the grand party Emperor Xuanzong held for Yang Yuhuan, but the latter half is too lengthy.
BEIJING: Movie critics in China are in a catfight over supposed artistic inconsistencies in the movie Legend of the Demon Cat.
Naysayers argue that the film has put too much emphasis on presenting a “Tang Dynasty” while ignoring character development.
The movie is an adaptation of Japanese writer Yoneyama Mineo’s novel Samana Kukai. Considering the limit of a cinematic run time, the movie sanded the edges and saved only the core scenario of Chinese poet Bai Juyi and Japanese monk Kukai’s investigation on the truth behind the death of Yang Yuhuan, the most beloved concubine of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (618- 907).
The dichotomy between the first and second half of the movie also came in for harsh criticism.
“The first half of the film is really attractive, especially the grand party Emperor Xuanzong held for Yang Yuhuan, but the latter half is too lengthy,” said Anuan, a movie enthusiast from douban.com.
“The logic of the film has messed up, and the performances are too shallow despite how much he wanted to express a profound theme,” grumbled Yu Shi, also a blogger from douban.
Anuan, a movie enthusiast from movie ranking site douban.com
There are also criticisms over “too many Japanese elements” and the casting, especially Sandrine Pinna, who plays Yang Yuhuan in the movie. Born to a French father and a Chinese mother, many complained that she is not the ideal “Yang Yuhuan”, who is often described as a classic Chinese beauty.
Led by Chinese actor Huang Xuan and Japan’s Shota Sometani, respectively playing Bai Juyi and Kukai, the casting also gathered a number of veteran Chinese and Japanese actors and rising new faces such as Zhang Luyi, Chang Jung-jung, Liu Haoran and Hiroshi Abe.
According to media reports, award-winning director Chen Kaige had been planning about the movie more than six years, and he even promoted and participated in the construction of the film set in Xiangyang city, Hubei province, which resembles Tang’s capital Chang’an (currently the city of Xi’an in Shaanxi province).
The construction cost about 1.3 billion yuan ( RM820 million), though separated from the film’s budget, and spans roughly 40 hectares. According to the director himself, only three per cent of the scenes in the movie were filmed in front of the green screen.
To its credit, most industry insiders praised the movie. Han Han, an influential Chinese writer, film critic and new director, said it is a “top-level” domestic film, while director Lu Chuan said it is “a real visual feast, worth watching for a second and third time in the cinema”.
“It would be unjust to smear it while deliberately ignoring the obvious effort of the crew and the outstanding performances of the actors,” said Lu.
“It is a confrontation between the adolescent and the adult,” said Jiang Fangzhou, one of China’s young writers. Xia He, another post-1980s writer, called him “a master who has always devoted himself to exploring reincarnation and destiny”.
The film was scored 6.9 on douban.com, a Rotten Tomatoeslike aggregation platform for movies, music and books. Most of those who gave the film the highest five- star rating said it is a highly-symbolic production that probes into truth and lies, love and heat, hypocrisy and sincerity, as well as the darkness and kindness in power and humanity. It is not the first time that a Chen Kaige film has triggered controversies and debates, however. His fantasy film The Promise in 2005 brought a deluge of parodies, and Monk Comes Down the Mountain in 2015 saw no improvement in the negative comments.
Many have complained that Chen could no longer reach the peak he created with his drama Farewell My Concubine, which won him the Palme d’Or in 1993 and was put into the “hall of fame” by public praise.
However, when asked why he continues to make fantasy movies 12 years after The Promise, Chen denied that it is to “justify himself” in commanding the genre.
“It is only my nostalgia and respect to a beautiful dynasty,” he said. He added that he never considered The Promise and Monk Comes Down the Mountain to be “bad films”, indicating that public opinion could also change as time goes by.