Asura (2018)

China’s most expensive film creates cinematic history after a disastrous opening

Sporting a collective of talents from around the world, adopting Hollywood’s skills and employing Chinese ethos into the fantasy epic, Asura which to this date is China’s most expensive film with a budget of 113 million US dollars. Boasting talents such as Oscar winner costume designer Ngila Dickson (The Lord of the Rings), VFX expert Charlie Iturriaga (Deapool), veteran audio director Martín Hernandez (Bridman) and Hollywood stunt coordinator Damien Walters (Kingsman). Charged with bringing the new proposed trilogy is director Zhang Peng, a veteran fight choreographer who has made a name for himself in Hollywood with a filmography consisting of Scott Pligrim, Twilight, Kick-ass to name a few.

Chinese obsession with CGI filled epics has become the norm these days with an over saturation of hollow films that pleases on a visual level but feels empty. Films like League of Gods, Wu Kong, The Monkey King trilogy, The Thousand faces of Huada are just a few some of the films that embraced CGI but failed to engage in story telling. Asura sadly continues this trend.

Asura follows the story of a young boy named Ruyi (Leo Wu Li) who begins his life as a humble sheep herder. Unknown to him is that he is the brother of the Asura King (Tony Leung Ka Fai and Carina Lau Ka Ling) who wishes to reunite with Ruyi so they can merge together allowing him to unlock the ‘great power’ within him and rule all of Asura realm. Ruyi is retrieved by Asura King’s right hand man Shi Po Lo (Feng Jia Yi) and introduced to the realm of Asura where will be ruling over. Ruyi’s arrival is attacked by the Rebels, lead by Hua Rei (Zhang Yi Shang) and her team of followers who opposes the King’s rule. After meeting the Asura King he soon realises the Kings dastardly plans and with the help of his pumpkin sidekick Tuka he seeks the rebels for help in putting a stop to his rule.

Released on July 13th 2018 the film immediately received a lot of negative reviews from audiences. Since July 15th 2018, just 3 days of release the film is pulled from the cinema screens. The decision made not by any government authorities or cinema chains but by the very producers themselves. The producers state that the negative press from certain individuals were deemed biased and with intentions to “sabotage’ the reputation of the film. During its 3 day run the film earned a measly 7 million US dollars, which is very low for a film of this calibre. As of now the film is going through some reediting and will be once again put back onto cinema screens at a later date.

Its not surprising if you have not heard of Zhang Peng but its more than likely you have witnessed his work as action choreographer in Hollywood such as Hellboy 2, Ant-man and 47 Ronins. Asura is Peng’s first directional debut and he demonstrates great use for spectacle but little finesse in pacing and performances. Deaths lack conviction and is almost inconsequential as we care little for the character or the emotional baggage that is suppose come with it. The opening alone has 2 major deaths that barely register for the characters are never set up enough for audiences to care. The death of a particular rebel at the beginning is so uneventful that it is laughable we don't even see the face of the character that dies just a body falling to its death. The Asura King is one note with very little characterisation its almost cartoon like. The multiple heads the makes the whole of Asura King is utilised in a mundane way and almost feel like a gimmick. At over 141 mins its way too long to sit through where nothing really develops into anything engaging. The mid section sags as action set pieces take a back seat and drama is placed in the forefront with overlong expositions and an undercooked romance. Leo Wu and Yi Shang have little chemistry and there love for one another just happens opposed to built towards. The other important romance between Tuka and Qi Ya offers little emotional pay off as they have very little on screen time spent together.

Names are given to much of the background characters but you will be hard pressed to remember who is who as they have little to do other than to participate in fights and languish in the background. Performance all round is pretty poor even from the veterans. Tony Leung’s performance is a caricature. Carina Lau only has a head for performance delivering her lines in a flat manner. Leo Wu does care free and happy very well but drops the ball once he has to emote rage and sadness. His emotional monologue never fully convinces. Newcomer Zhang Yi Shang lacks conviction as bad ass warrior and leader as well as sporting very little facial expressions. Rounding of the Rebel team is Paul Clarke (Kung Fu Yoga) who scrunches his face far too often in displays of anguish, Mathew Knowles (Love Me If You Dare?) is there as the big guy of the team, Caitlin Dechelle (Chinese Zodiac and Wonder Woman’s stunt double) and UK contortionist Bonetics makes brief appearances here and there but seems to be interchangeable with other rebels. Damien Walters protégé Greg Townley (Kingsman, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) has little to offer in screen performance but displays some fine acrobatic movements.

Production design is fantastic with great elaborate sets matched with great cinematography. Much of the film draws inspiration from The Lord of the Rings, with sets feeling organic and inhabitants of different varieties feeling natural. Sadly the Asura realm created feels too unpopulated and undeveloped for audiences to really feel for the citizens. Visual effects by and large is top notch with the occasional dip in quality here and there, most often is the background plates not matching with the character. Creature design is great but sadly execution is not always matched, in Asura the horse’s head is a creature of its own and as our soldiers ride said horses, the heads takes flight as a winged creature, the idea is sound but when we witness the transition it does not quite feel natural. With so much going on the film tries to cater to all audience resulting in half baked scenarios.

Musical score is of a high quality hitting the correct emotional beats as well as giving the feeling of a fable or fairy tale on par with The Lord of the Rings sadly the biggest problem with the score is that its too frequent. So many moments are punctuated by a musical score but silence would have been more fitting.

Zhang Peng has made a name for himself as a fantastic action choreograph so one would expect exceptional fight action in Asura. Collaborating with his regular cohort Damien Walters and Gao Xiang (Hellboy 2) they craft some fantastic set pieces but sadly in most occasions there is some minor things hindering the exceptional fight choreography. The fight set pieces are varied and offer enough variety to entertain. The opening fight scene takes place on 2 mountain tops linked together by rope bridges, though its really hard to decipher the information and geography for the lighting is way to dark which obscures much on display. The occasional moment that we do see it becomes a great showcase of some great fight choreography and acrobatic display. Following this is an aerial and ground battle that fluctuates between entertaining and frustrating. For the aerial battle the combatants are connected by a CGI creature that allows them flight but most of the time these CGI beings obscure the view of what the live action talents are performing so mostly it looks like clashes of CGI creatures opposed to careful orchestrated fights. Cutting between the aerial fight is the ground battle, which provides some impressive stunt and wire-work mixed with some interesting fight choreography. An interesting note is that much of aerial fight was filmed on actual location, which is an impressive feat. The best set piece of the film is the fight between the narrow cliff faces. Featuring a remarkable display of acrobatic movements between the rock faces mixed with some extraordinary stunt work. The only quip about this is that there is so much going on it can be rather chaotic on screen making it difficult to focus on the central action. Just like every other CGI fantasy film from China, Asura’s finale is an orgy of CGI with little fighting involved. The technical side in achieving this scene is impressive; sporting one of the largest LED rooms ever made just for a scene but it provides little satisfaction for the audience. Pseudo single takes are utilised in the fight scenes giving a very nice flow in movement it is a technique dubbed “morph” employed similarly in Kingsman.

The impressive team that Asura had assembled has paid of from a visual stand point; sporting some great cinematography, impressive production design, intricate fight choreography and top notch visual effects but sadly story and pacing are neglected in the process resulting in a sub par film. It will be intriguing to see what the announced new reedited version will be like, some streamlining and cutting of the excessive fat is definitely necessary.

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Asura

Please release this again. I feel like this time around it would get a better reception from the audience. If not, please make it where we are able to stream it online. You would see the differences. I believe more viewers would watch it now. This film did get get a chance for audience to see. Make it where now it is available and in available in different languages. I have searched everywhere to try to watch this but unable to. All I was able to find is the trailer and nothing more……… what other options will be offer to watch this movie. I have searched and all I am able to see is only the trailer. I hope that this movie will be available to give it another chance

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