The Demonic Lord and the Virtuous Cultivator (2021)

would have loved more

trigger warnings: imprisonment, strangulation

This was kind of odd, both in the sense that it is 4 minutes long and that it feels like a trailer. So much so that I had to like, triple check that I wasn't watching the trailer for this very thing.

Short films like this often make me hungrier for a larger work (looking at you 2019's Kiss of the Rabbit God). The game attempt by the director and team here to just like, try to fit an entire web novels plot into 4 minutes is pretty solid but there is just too much plot for that little amount of time (this is also why it feels like a trailer).

A comment on the video I watched said something about how if BL can do the toxic master/disciple relationship so can GL and honestly, go for it girl. I just hope that there are more longer form works down the pipeline.

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This would've worked out better as a full fledged movie.
The story was an actually excellent one involving very wuxiaish tropes. From what I observed, it follows of a young disciple whose parents are killed off by a mysterious cultivator. She is adopted by her 'Shifu' for whom she develops ardent feelings for.
I loved the soundtrack used for the short film. It can be called a rather short music video rather than a film. Some of the actors were unconvincing and this seems to be an independant creation. I appreciate the efforts that they took. It was all over in the blink of an eye.

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