A Legend Retold

“I kept asking myself why didn’t I make this series?” the 51-year-old ethnic Mongolian director told NewsChina. “This was a sort of habit of mine. Every time I saw an extremely good movie, I always wished I’d made it. When I watched Lord of the Rings, the feeling was so intense I couldn’t forget it.” 　

The seed of ambition was sown. Wuershan proved his prowess in producing blockbusters, with three successful commercial movies – The Butcher, The Chef, and the Swordsman (2011), Painted Skin 2 (2012) and Mojin: The Lost Legend (2015). Earning 700 million yuan (US$96m) at the box office in China alone, Painted Skin 2 once held the record as the Chinese mainland’s highest-grossing domestic film. These accomplishments earned him the opportunity to realize his dream – make a fantasy trilogy on par with Lord of the Rings with Chinese source material. 

Wuershan’s Fengshen trilogy of films is based on the most well-known classic fantasy novel in China, Fengshen Yanyi, or The Investiture of the Gods, written by Xu Zhonglin and Lu Xixing during the Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644). It is a romanticized telling of the overthrow of King Zhou, the last ruler of the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE). He is depicted in Chinese history as a depraved tyrant who invented tortures that mainly involved grilling his victims alive. 　

With a budget of 3 billion yuan (US$414m) and a crew of over 8,000, the Fengshen trilogy is one of the most ambitious and expensive projects in Chinese film. Starting in 2014, the project’s screenplay took five years to write, and another 18 months to shoot. 　

The first installment of what will be three movies – Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms – was released on July 20th, 2023. By August 13, it had grossed over 2 billion yuan (US$275m) at the domestic box office. For reference, China’s highest grossing domestic film of all time is war film The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021) at 5.8 billion yuan (US$799.2m). 　

Comparing Wuershan’s latest film, which earned a rating of 7.8/10 on China’s leading media review website Douban, with dozens of previous cinematic and TV adaptations of Investiture, critics and netizens alike are describing it as the best version to date. 

“I was in awe of Fengshen’s level of production. In comparison, The Wandering Earth was like a handicraft workshop, like raising livestock,” Guo said at the press conference. 

　

Guo’s remark aroused curiosity within the industry, as The Wandering Earth series was already lauded for being nearly on par with top Hollywood productions. 　

The Fengshen set covered over 33 hectares of the Oriental Movie Metropolis, an enormous film production complex in Qingdao, on the coast of Shandong Province. 　

On his visit, Guo Fan said he was astonished by how such a gigantic project could be run so efficiently and quietly. “There was no hustle and bustle at all. Everyone was disciplined, and it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop,” Guo said. 　

What surprised him most was the schedule – the crew worked regular office hours. For The Wandering Earth, Guo recalled how his crew once shot for 27 hours straight. 　

Casting such a monumental film required the same efficiency. Eleven casting crews took a year finding actors in China and abroad who could clear two years for the project. Wuershan personally auditioned 1,400 actors from a list of 15,000. He eventually chose 30, who underwent six months of intensive training that involved acting, horseback riding, swordplay, archery, ancient music and etiquette. 　

The sets took years to build, employing more than 1,000 woodcarvers and carpenters. 　

A recreation of Longde Palace, the main palace of the Shang court, took more than seven months. The 17-meter-tall structure is exquisitely decorated with more than 1,500 ornamentations made from wood, clay and stone. An imposing wooden folding screen carved with images recounting the 500-year history of the Shang and its rulers, sits behind the throne. 

“It creates a sense of trust,” Fengshen art director Qiu Sheng said about the necessity of elaborate sets. “Our crew could feel it and audiences will also feel it eventually.” 　

Wuershan told NewsChina that there are three major criteria in appraising a blockbuster’s production level. The public usually regards visual effects as the most prominent indicator. He ranks it last. Instead, the director stresses creativity, both screenplay and visual aesthetics, and production management. 　

“Ensuring the effective cooperation of every sector and guaranteeing daily operations over such a long time were already quite big accomplishments in Chinese film production,” Wuershan told NewsChina. 

He considered standard fare such as the Buddhist fantasy adventure Journey to the West and historic war drama Romance of the Three Kingdoms. But Wuershan arrived at Investiture of the Gods for its blend of history and mythology told as an epic saga. 　

Investiture tells the story of King Wu, who overthrew the Shang in the 11th century BCE to found the Zhou Dynasty, which lasted 800 years and set the foundations of Chinese politics and culture. Meanwhile, it taps into indigenous religion Taoism and its rich cultural and mythological tapestry. 　

“Journey to the West involves Buddhism, while Investiture is purely Chinese – it’s an imagined world of Chinese people, from which we can perceive the roots of our people’s mindsets. So I think it’s an ideal choice to adapt such a story,” the director told news outlet The Paper. 　

Wuershan enlisted the help of screenwriters Lu Wei (Farewell My Concubine) and James Schamus (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) over the five years of revisions. 　

He also consulted producer Barrie M. Osborne (Lord of the Rings), who gave Wuershan sage advice – film the three installments at once to reduce costs. 　

Wuershan told NewsChina this made sense because the trilogy’s plots occur sequentially, so the sets could be reused. “After all, it’s much harder to refurbish an old house than to refurnish an empty one,” he said. The actors would also be primed for their best performances following their six-month training. 

As Ji Fa is not a focal point in the novel, Wuershan told NewsChina that it leaves more room to develop his story about the growth of a young hero, which resonates with contemporary young audiences. 　

Father figures also play an important role. Fengshen reinterprets the relationship between Ji Fa and Yin Shou, who would become the Shang King Zhou that he eventually overthrows, from avuncular to adversarial. In the original novel, these two characters never meet until the final Battle of Muye in 1046 BCE. 　

In the film, the crown requires each Shang duke to send one son to the royal court as collateral to ensure their loyalty. Ji Fa, the second son of the Western Duke Ji Chang, was among them. There he grew up with other boys of the aristocracy and trained in combat by military official Yin Shou, who Ji Fa sees as a father figure. 　

After Yin Shou becomes King Zhou, Ji Fa discovers that his father, Ji Chang, was conspiring with other dukes to overthrow the king. Torn between loyalty and love, Ji Fa is forced to make difficult decisions. 　

“The core of our adaptation is to bring myths and legends back to human nature. As modern people living in the real world, we don’t have supernatural powers, but we understand fathers and family… Such basic emotions of humanity are something that every one of us can relate to,” Wuershan told Yangcheng Evening News. 　

Audiences praised the film for subverting the prevalent misogynous narratives in Investiture and its past adaptations. For example, Su Daji, King Zhou’s concubine, has always been portrayed as a scheming femme fatale that spells the downfall of the Shang. 　

King Zhou, notorious for his debauched cruelty, is often portrayed as Su Daji’s easily-manipulated puppet. It is a standard trope in Chinese drama and conventional: beautiful women of the court like Su Daji are often blamed for the fall of a dynasty, rather than the folly of its emperors. 　

In Wuershan’s film, King Zhou is no marionette. He is a competent commander-in-chief and unscrupulous royal who murdered his father and elder brother for the throne. 　

Su Daji is recast as the incarnation of a fox spirit who King Zhou saves purely by accident during a battle. In gratitude, she devotes her supernatural powers to his service – which he uses to fulfill his twisted ambitions. 　

“The most laudable point about the latest Fengshen film lies in the reshaping of Su Daji. She is no more a Helen of Troy figure. Women are no longer portrayed as the bane of a country’s fall,” “strawberriiia” commented on Sina Weibo. 　

“The first installment of Fengshen unveils an excellent opening chapter beyond expectations. Very few battle scenes between deities and demons are depicted. Instead, it focuses on the dynamics of multiple father-son relationships and shows how each individual makes choices in a quandary of morality, justice and family. In this story, it is patriarchy itself, instead of women, that leads to the collapse of the dynasty. The film presents a fresh new interpretation of an ancient old text,” “Xu Ruofeng” commented on Douban. 　

With post-production for the next two installments underway, their release still depends on box-office revenue from the first. 　

“We never thought of cutting corners – there’s no shortcut for us to take,” Wuershan said. “We are devoting ourselves to plowing an uncertain field, and we’ll harvest it only after all three films have been released.”