Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Legend of the Naga Pearls Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 16, 2018

Legend of the Naga Pearls is weirdly reminiscent of any number of other Asian fantasy films that have been in my review queue lately, to the point that I kind of wondered if this entry, like some of the others I’ve written about over the past year or so, is based on some pre-existing mythological text. In perhaps one sign that the internet isn’t quite yet completely stuffed with useful information, what little data I could track down on the genesis of this film seems to suggest it’s related to a series of 21st century novels instead of ancient scriptures, though it’s evident that whatever the source material is/was, there’s an unmistakable folkloristic element to the story which involves an epochal battle between humans and winged creatures who are more or less divine beings (even if their behavior is hardly “godly”). The whole “winged tribe” aspect of the story perhaps unavoidably recalled League of Gods for me, since both films feature a winged protagonist who hasn’t yet quite mastered the art of flying, but it’s interesting to note that League of Gods, like several other films that film reminded me of, was based on a 16th century text, one that might seem like “myth” simply by dint of its age. I’m clearly not expert enough in terms of Asian stories about gods and devils to know if the whole winged tribe aspect is common to many such tales, but of course winged divine beings are prevalent globally, as evidenced by the Western fascination with angels.

Legend of the Naga Pearls begins with (and eventually returns to) a rather charming animated sequence documenting the battle between the Winged Tribe and Humans, with the Humans prevailing, but with many Winged Tribe denizens still hanging (?) around. The film then segues to a somewhat disturbing vignette documenting some uncomfortable bullying of a little boy. The little boy has a strange disfigurement that later plays into the story — his hand has a pulsating blue scar that seems kinda sorta reminiscent of a major wound (on the head in this case) of a certain young British mage. That vignette then quickly segues to detail that little boy all grown up in the form of Ni Kongkong (Darren Wang), the self-appointed “prince of thieves”.

In just one of several tangential cinematic referents that may waft through various viewers’ minds as they watch Legend of the Naga Pearls, the freewheeling Ni, an ostensible thief, tools through a market with a playful animal sidekick, something that seems almost willfully reminiscent of Aladdin. In this case, our focal bandit isn’t accompanied by a monkey, but instead by a (flatulent) armadillo (or perhaps pangolin) named Oka. If Ni is this film’s Aladdin, then Princess Jasmine would be Raven (Zhang Tianai), one of the members of the Winged Tribe who nonetheless wants to live in peace with Humankind. (In a plot point that is decidedly similar to League of Gods, Raven hasn’t yet mastered the art of flight.)

The film kind of marauds through a series of sometimes confounding vignettes, ultimately picking up a third hero to help on a quest for the priceless naga pearls, artifacts which evidently can either start or stop the Apocalypse, depending on which character is talking. (Legend of the Naga Pearls shares something else with several of the Asian fantasy films I’ve reviewed over the past year or so, namely that it’s pretty incomprehensible at times, with no clear contextualization or development of certain salient plot points.) One kind of interesting thing is that Ni actually more or less completes the quest fairly early in the going, though it takes the trio a while to figure out they’ve been more or less chasing their own tails in the interim.

Legend of the Naga Pearls is certainly completely acceptable within the somewhat hyperbolic bounds of the “traditional” Asian fantasy film, but it has a few major hurdles to overcome. Chief among these is the truly cartoonish CGI of Oka, a character so manifestly “unreal” looking that it regularly fractures what little semblance of “reality” the film has to begin with. Accompanying this questionable bit of production design are villains who frankly look like not very well designed (and/or made up) aliens from Star Trek: The Original Series. Ni and Raven are actually interesting characters in their own right, but the film is so relentlessly noisy and anecdotal that it becomes harder and harder to get to know them.

Legend of the Naga Pearls Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Legend of the Naga Pearls is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As mentioned above, any sort of data on this film is fairly sparse on the internet (at least that I was able to find), so I don't have authoritative information on what camera was utilized or what resolution the presumed DI was finished at, but this has a very appealingly sharp and well detailed looking presentation, at least when actual humans (as in actors) and practical props are in the frame. There are several key sequences that are fairly heavily graded, including some underground material that's deeply blue, something that tends to keep fine detail levels at bay. But in bright lighting, the palette looks natural and quite robust almost all of the time, and detail levels on things like facial pores or textures of fabrics are largely flawless. The biggest issue here is with some really oddly "cartoon like" CGI, both in terms of Oka, the little armadillo like creature, but also with regard to some of the backgrounds and (especially) establishing shots. These can all look pretty soft and ill defined at times, at least when compared to the bulk of the presentation. There's some passing mentions of a 3D presentation of this film in some markets on some sites, something I haven't been able to confirm, but as with so many other Asian films released overseas in that format, this Blu-ray offers only a flat 2D version.

Legend of the Naga Pearls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Legend of the Naga Pearls features a nicely detailed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in the original Mandarin (with optional English subtitles). The sound design provides good, consistent immersion courtesy of a glut of sound effects the erupt when any of the many hand to hand battles accrue, but also with regard to well placed ambient environmental effects or even some of the sillier sounds that emanate from Oka. Dialogue and score are both rendered with clarity and precision on this problem free track.

Legend of the Naga Pearls Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:47)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA releases, the disc has been authored to move on automatically to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. The trailers for other releases also play at disc boot up.

Legend of the Naga Pearls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Legend of the Naga Pearls doesn't break any new ground, and it gets its particular job done in an okay manner, but it's never totally engaging, and as things go on it gets increasingly repetitive. The actors are charismatic, even if Wang tends to play things extremely broadly at times. Technical merits are first rate for those considering a purchase.