On 12 February 2020, I watched The Great Wall, a very unusual 2017 fantasy movie directed by Zhang Yimou, and set in northern China during the 11th Century AD.
This sumptuous Chinese-American collaboration stars Matt Damon as a vagabond master archer from Ireland named William Garin and Pedro Pascal as his Spanish friend Pero Tovar, both of whom have barely survived up till now as mercenaries but hope to steal gunpowder from China and bring it back to the West (where it is currently unknown), to earn themselves a fortune. After slaying a huge and hideous monster and then encountering the Great Wall of China, where they are captured by its guards, things don't go to plan for them, however, especially when the Wall is attacked by an enormous horde of the same monsters, known as the Tao Tei, which apparently appear en masse every 60 years.
Worth noting here is that these creatures are actually based upon a bona fide Chinese mythical beast known as the Taotie – a gluttonous monster constituting one of the Four Perils (evil creatures) of the world. The other three are a faceless, six-legged, winged bringer of chaos known as the Hundun; an anthopophagous entity called the Qiongqi; and a foolhardy, stubborn creature termed the Taowu. This malevolent quartet is in eternal confrontation with the world's Four Symbols (holy creatures) – namely, the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise.
Back to The Great Wall: whereas Tovar and a fellow captured Westerner, Sir Ballard (played by Willem Dafoe), want to escape with some gunpowder while the Wall's military Nameless Order is occupied in repelling the monsters (who apparently arrived in China via a meteorite many centuries earlier), William has divided loyalties.
For although he is certainly tempted to do the same, as he had originally planned, part of William now wants to redeem his past misdemeanors by staying put and employing his very considerable archery skills to help the Chinese warriors defeat the Tao Tei and, especially, destroy their Queen, who controls their evolution, reproduction, and coordinated attacks upon the Wall. He also realizes that he has fallen in love with the Nameless Order's formidable but very beautiful female leader, Commander Lin Mae (Jing Tian), complicating matters even further.
What should William do? Which path should he take – betrayal and escape with his friends and the gunpowder, or redemption but almost certain death by staying and fighting alongside the brave Chinese warriors and Commander Lin?
Needless to say, The Great Wall features plenty of out-and-out action thrills and spills, with fantastic battle scenes, and the CGI Tao Tei monsters are awesome to watch too. I found the entire film very engrossing, with its unusual, exotic setting both transforming and transcending it beyond what might otherwise have been just another standard Hollywood blockbuster monster movie.
Also of interest is that its cast list of actors includes a number of well known Asian singers, but all of them play non-singing serious roles. They include Andy Lau (as Strategist Wang), Lu Han (soldier Peng Yong), Eddie Peng (Commander Wu), Karry Wang (Emperor Renzong of Song, aka Zhao Zhen), and Cheney Chen (Commander of the Imperial Guard).
As I particularly enjoy Oriental movies, The Great Wall greatly appealed to me, and if you click here to view an official trailer for this blockbuster, and here to watch the first mass attack upon the Wall and its defenders by the innumerable, ferocious Tao Tei horde, I'm sure that you'll see why.
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