Fewer faces would have been more
H.P. Lovecraft meets the Three Stooges (by way of “Men in Black”) courtesy of “The Thousand Faces of Dunjia,” an insanely overthe-top live-action cartoon of a sci-fi-fantasy martial arts adventure.
The Chinese import, set in a nonspecific place in time, concerns the efforts of the supernaturally gifted Wuyin Clan to get their hands on a powerful cosmic device to defeat alien enemies from “beyond the sky.”
They’re both assisted and hampered in their efforts by Dao (Aarif Lee), a gung-ho but somewhat dimwitted police recruit who gradually becomes schooled in the fine art of dealing with bug-eyed monster fish and sultry shapeshifters (the latter sweetly played by Dongyu Zhou).
A collaboration between respected director Yuen Wo Ping, whose talents as an action choreographer are on display in “The Matrix” trilogy and Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” films; and commercially successful Hong Kong filmmaker Tsui Hark, who penned the madcap script, the CGdrenched production could never be accused of being standard issue wuxia.
Still, over the course of almost two hours, all the amped-up visual effects and slapstick silliness can become awfully exhausting.
“Dunjia” could have easily sufficed with a few hundred fewer faces.
“The Thousand Faces of Dunjia.” In Mandarin with English subtitles. Not rated. Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes. Playing: AMC Santa Anita 16, Arcadia; AMC Atlantic Times Square, Monterey Park; AMC Puente Hills 20, City of Industry.