Mojin - The Lost Legend (2015) (DVD) (English Subtitled) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3

Set in the 1980s, the film opens with Chen Kun, Huang Bo and Shu Qi as Hu Bayi, Wang Kaixuan and Shirley Yang, three former tomb raiders known as the Mojin Xiaowei, part of an ancient order employed by Chinese emperors to liberate valuable artefacts from tombs for the good of the country. Now retired and living in New York, the three are pulled back into the game when their associate Big Gold Tooth (Xia Yu, Breakup Buddies) tempts Wang into taking on a lucrative contract to loot the tomb of an Inner Mongolian princess for a wealthy business woman (Liu Xiaoqing) and her creepy entourage. Quite correctly smelling a rat, Hu and Shirley reluctantly decide to tag along, only to find that the tomb is one where he and Wang had lost the woman they both loved (Angelababy) some 20 years back during a Communist Youth League mission to clear out an old underground Japanese army base. Sure enough, it quickly becomes clear that something sinister is afoot, and the Mojin Xiaowei find themselves trying to survive while preventing their evil employer from getting her hands on an amulet that can raise the dead.

As much as anything else, Mojin: The Lost Legend is proof that the Chinese film industry is catching up with Hollywood, as it's every inch the high-powered blockbuster production, driven by flashy special effects and bombastic action set pieces. For the most part, this approach works pretty well, and the film is fun and entertaining in a kind of The Mummy meets Zu Warriors way, though Tomb Raider is obviously what's most likely to come to mind, due to both the plot and the video game like feel that permeates throughout. Wuershan is a director known for innovative, manic visuals, and he serves up more of the same here, with some dexterous camerawork, fancy choreography and dizzying editing giving the film an impressive look and an energetic pace. The considerable budget is certainly up there on the screen, and the film is easily one of the glossier from China of late, with great effects work, vast CGI-enhanced underground sets and suitably epic use of Wuershan's native Inner Mongolian landscapes. It's for the most part fun and creative stuff, and though some of the more overtly supernatural aspects apparently had to be trimmed at script stage, the fantasy elements are fun and imaginative, and the use of Chinese tomb culture provides an interesting, if exoticised backdrop for western viewers.

On the downside, the usual blockbuster criticisms apply, and Mojin lacks any real kind of substance, Wuershan clearly having been far more concerned with putting his characters through the wringer rather than actually making them believable. Neither Hu Bayi, Wang Kaixuan nor Shirley Yang have any defining qualities, and there's no emotional engagement in their relationships whatsoever, despite some clumsy attempts at flirty banter and forced chemistry by the script. This isn’t really the fault of Chen Kun, Huang Bo and Shu Qi to be fair, all of whom are fine, despite having very little to do apart from providing a touch of star power, and it's only Angelababy who fails to register. Similarly, though never boring, the film is bloated and predictable, and while Wuershan does keep things moving at a fair pace, it's hard not to feel like all the tricks and techniques he employs are designed mainly to dazzle and to distract from its hollow centre.

Mojin: The Lost Legend probably shouldn't be judged too harshly on this score however, and the film delivers enthusiastically on its promise of a couple of hours of adventurous fantasy thrills, more so than a lot of other Chinese blockbusters of late. Viewers content with this shouldn't be disappointed, and Wuershan just about manages to make up the film's flaws with his bag of visual tricks and the undeniable lure of the A-list cast.

by James Mudge - EasternKicks.com