Eatup's Guide to China & The Far East - Part II

China's answer to LOTR: Throne of Elves 3D-VR (Ultimate trailer reposted for your convenience):



(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY8wIgoL1f0)


MV:



(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKYyJww5eJ4)

 

The prequel, Dragon Nest: Warrior's Dawn (2014)



(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZReRzEERZo)


There's a bit of sexy in Chinese cinema, but they're usually not as bad as the Japanese ones that border on being porn. China is a conservative country with higher moral values than perverted Japan. Anyways, I watch a lot of Asian movies. This is the first time I've even heard of such thing... You might never know what China's already cooking until too late. Unfortunately, IMDB doesn't list any release date for the sequel already out outside of China...

 

MV of prequel with singer in it:



(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czurFCOfEd8)

 

Same song as above but with Chinese singer:



(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=852-iUIA8O4)

 

Japan's answer to China(-America)'s Dragon Nest/Throne of Elves: Linkle




Japan has always been the one to copy from China. Their Goku/Inuyasha/Naruto characters are all permutations of China's legendary Monkey King.

IMO, this Linkle female character doesn't look as acrobatic as the one in Dragon Nest. Also, the double cross-bows on her thighs look rather silly...

Anyways, which character do you prefer?

 

Just a little correction. Dragon Nest is based on a South Korean MMORPG of the same name. The Chinese bought out this IP in 2010. There is a Japanese manga based on the game. But...


Just as I assumed, the Japanese normally don't deliver something so beautiful... I mean, if you like Legend of Zelda et al. kudos to you, but IMO Dragon Nest is better...

 

The prequel, Dragon Nest: Warrior's Dawn has a rating of 7.28/10 on 637 votes on myanimelist. Remains to be seen whether the sequel will exceed the score or not:


http://myanimelist.net/anime/27825/Dragon_Nest__Warriors_Dawn


I just watched the first 30 minutes of the prequel in 1080p. I'm impressed. There are certain areas that didn't feel very fluid (b/c China is a newcomer to CGI animation), but I'm liking this female lead Elf character a lot.

I also saw all 3 LOTR movies. The elves in those movies didn't feel like supernatural beings with "superhuman" powers. Sure Legolas was able to climb a moving Oliphant, but that felt more like a feat of humanly agility than "superhuman" ones. Was quite surprised how Dragon Nest was able to capture the "supernatural elf" feeling for me...

Also, not sure if they used motion capture in the prequels, but the sequel sure did... Looking forward to what upgrade technology they used in the sequel, if any...

Also, if anyone's watched the YT vids posted above, you'll notice there's a lot of Chinese-style KungFu/acrobatics, which I much prefer over the ones often seen in Japanese anime. I've enjoyed the fights choreography in The Matrix (1999) far more than any anime I've seen to date!

 

Reviewers from Canada, Romania, Portugal, New York, Belgium, Sweden, UK, Hong Kong also raving about the prequel, Dragon Nest: Warrior's Dawn here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2911342/reviews?filter=chrono

 

Just finished watching Warrior's Dawn (DN: WD). It's a huge cut above the crap Hollywood recently put out in the form of The Hobbit trilogy, it's the reason I'm disinterested in anymore big-budget Hollywood fantasy productions. My only real gripe with DN: WD, the 90 min movie felt like a 45 minutes. Felt too short, I could eat like a whole 52-hour movie of the franchise, no pun intended.

The good: It doesn't have the pretenses like a mere human/hobbit can defeat a huge dragon. Took a half human-dragon + back-up magicians/warriors to bring the big bad dragon boss down. Most touching scene was when our Elf female lead started departing from her body, could see her ghostly figure rising, but was saved b/c a kind half-human dragon decided to lend his life force jewel. The other touching scene was his sister, unable to do any magic until that critical moment, where she transformed into a dragon to save her brother (sort of like Supergirl not fully yet learnt to fly).

The super-good: Dragon boss is wildly unique from Smaug. It's tail has these bony fans on the sides to help it maneuver in the air. Best practical AND dragon design I've seen yet in cinema. You guys have to remember, China will soon have hypersonic glide vehicles traveling at Mach 20 (the Chinese team of engineers already cracked the problem), while the American HGV program to date is deemed a failure. If there is a country that knows good designs of flying creatures, that has to be not Japan, but China. (Heck Japan doesn't even have a 5th gen stealth fighter yet, they're only starting to work on one).

The bad: Soundtrack/score is essentially non-existent until the climatic dragon fight. If you've ever watched Japanese movies, they're really bland when it comes to sound/music. Same can be said of DN: WD. (It's mostly an Asian cinema thing.) Version I watched was English dubbed, the dubbing felt out-of-place sometimes.

My rating 9.9/10. Easily my favorite movie of the last 5 years (ould be dethroned by the sequel though)! And, I'll tell y'all about my favorite show of the last 5 years in another post...


Really looking forward to the sequel. Since I don't live in China I will have to wait...