Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Mojin - The Lost Legend Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's Lara Croft when you really need her?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 28, 2016

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider didn’t set any critical hearts on fire, but it still resonated well enough with the ticket buying populace to engender one sequel, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Still, the general consensus seemed to be that this fledgling franchise never quite attained the promise its source material seemed to offer, an element which struck some as a little peculiar, given how “perfect” that source material seemed to be for big screen adaptive treatment. Something akin to that phenomenon also attended another film detailing the adventures of so-called tomb raiders, Mojin: The Lost Legend, though it’s worth noting that this film is actually the second outing in a series (the first, Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe, looks like it may be coming from Well Go USA later this year). As with several other Chinese films that have ultimately made it across the pond for domestic release, Mojin: The Lost Legend had a 3D presentation in its native country, but evidently only screened in 2D here in the United States, and is only offered in a “flat” presentation on this Blu-ray. Once again, this at least partially defeats some of the inherent fun of the enterprise, since it’s clear several of the film’s visual effects were designed to be “in the face” of viewers. The film’s visual ingenuity is one of its chief calling cards, for my hunch is many Western viewers will be at least temporarily confused by a story that never really details characters’ interrelationships very well and which also has the tendency to lapse into disjunctive flashbacks that keep the story from moving forward organically. Still, with Lara Croft evidently shunted off into the cinematic hinterlands for the foreseeable future, lovers of tomb raiding adventures will probably find enough here to satisfy their action adventure desires.

As a Portland resident who lived through the national embarrassment of the Tonya Harding situation back in the day (my wife was actually a news anchor at the station that broke most of the big details at the time), I at least could laugh heartily at one of the funniest comments that accrued around the scandal. It came courtesy of David Letterman, who in a Top 10 list of the worst aspects of the incident mentioned that forcing the “l” challenged Tom Brokaw to pronounce “Jeff Gillooly” was among the more disturbing sidebars of the entire episode. In a similar vein and without hopefully seeming to be too politically incorrect (which is certainly not my intention), it seems odd that the heroine’s name in Mojin: The Lost Legend is Shirley (Shu Qi), for it ends up making Mandarin speakers result in some pretty odd pronunciations throughout the film. That probably unintended humor aside, Shirley is part of a tomb raiding trio which also includes Hu Bayi (Chen Kun), who just so happens to be Shirley’s fiancé, and Wang Kaixuan (Huang Bo). The three are seen in a prologue of sorts which establishes some of the “ground rules” of their grave robbing (rules which are in and of themselves patently bizarre and nonsensical), while also offering a glimpse of some mystical proclivities which will inform the story going forward.

In just one of several moments in the film that seem to have gotten “lost in translation” (this one courtesy of a patently confusing “explanatory” subtitle), Mojin: The Lost Legend segues forward several years from the prologue’s timeframe while also depositing the three tomb raiders into late 1980s Manhattan. The prologue has not adequately explained who is who or how they’re interrelated, so it actually takes a few minutes to figure out that Shirley and Hu are engaged and that Wang is kind of the comedic foil third wheel of the group. A similar disconnect happens a little while later when Wang “goes rogue” in accepting an assignment despite the fact that the three have evidently agreed to put their tomb raiding days behind them.

It’s at this point that the first of a series of intrusive flashbacks occur, this one showing the student days of Hu and Wang, who are dutiful young Chinese Communists touting their Little Red Books and spouting quotes from Chairman Mao. Hu is entranced with a young girl named Ding Sitian (Angelababy), but in yet another weirdly uncontextualized episode with the teens yanking down religious icons (because they’re somehow antithetical to Communism—maybe?), a series of supernatural phenomena ensue which results in a tragic ending for Ding, something that continues to haunt Hu into his adulthood (and which is actually hinted at in the segue between the prologue and first Manhattan sequence—at least, if you pay really close attention.

After an undue amount of setup and sidebar, what ultimately turns out to be the main plot arc unfolds when Wang and his scheming partner Big Gold Tooth AKA Grill (Xia Yu) end up working for a female impresario named Ying Caihong (Liu Xiaoqing), who also just so happens to be a cult leader. Ying wants to find an ancient tomb which (in one of several too convenient coincidences) turns out to be the same place that Ding met her fate years previously. A bunch of mystical hoo-hah (a technical term) accrues, with a number of magical amulets in play which seem to have the power to raise the dead, leading to several spectacular showdowns with quasi-zombies. Of course, Ying has her own reasons for wanting control of the discs, but Hu is motivated by a perhaps more noble calling.

Most of the last part of the film plays out in a series of underground tombs which have various obstacles which, like Lara Croft’s genesis, hint at video games. There’s some decent visual relish to this section of the film, but there are so many dangling plot threads that audience interest itself may well be frayed for many viewers. Director Wuershan keeps things moving briskly, though, offering the requisite set pieces, albeit with occasionally too much schtick ornamenting the fringes.

In a wonderfully ironic punchline to my lede in this review, just as I was putting the finishing touches on everything, a Variety email arrived announcing that Lara Croft is going to be rebooted with Alicia Vikander in the title role.

Mojin - The Lost Legend Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mojin: The Lost Legend is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 2.30:1 (as a couple of the screenshots accompanying this review show, a few sequences are in 1.78:1, something I assume relates to the film's IMAX presentation in its native markets). Despite the lack of a 3D component, there's decent dimensionality here, with a number of OK looking CGI effects supposedly "reaching out" to touch the audience. Shadow detail is generally above average in a number of pretty murky (and at times pretty aggressively color graded) tomb sequences. The outdoor material, especially some really beautifully over saturated flashback moments, offers superb reproduction of a vast array of hues and some excellent levels of fine detail. There are a couple of brief instances of notable banding, typically relegated to elements like bright skies, but otherwise this is a problem free presentation.

Mojin - The Lost Legend Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mojin: The Lost Legend's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (in Mandarin, with optional English subtitles) is a typically thundering affair for an SFX laden epic. Sound effects regularly zing through the side and rear channels and provide a number of the set pieces (several of which offer quasi-zombies as combatants) the requisite immersion and opportunities for LFE. The only issue I personally had is that the film's thumping bass heavy score by Kôji Endô tends to overpower some of the effects at times, a probably intentional choice but one which may present prioritization issues for some listeners. Otherwise, though, dialogue comes through cleanly and clearly, and the film's soundtrack offers excellent fidelity and extremely wide dynamic range.

Mojin - The Lost Legend Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (1080i; 4:00)


• Behind the Scenes

  Chen Kun (1080i; 3:32)

  Huang Bo (1080i; 3:24)

• Trailer (1080p; 1:57)

Mojin - The Lost Legend Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mojin: The Lost Legend could have used a bit of tightening (the film runs a bit over two hours, which is arguably at least a few minutes too long), as well as more explanation and context for its characters (though my hunch is a lot of this particular "problem" probably played better for Chinese audiences than it will for many Westerners). Still, the film has some very fun effects sequences, even if the entire enterprise comes off as fairly derivative and ultimately nonsensical. With caveats noted, and with an appreciation for generally fine technical merits, Mojin: The Lost Legend comes Recommended.