Note: there are only a few spoilers. I have written this review with enough left unsaid.
This film is a bit of fun, really.
The discovery of the Terracotta figures was such a shock and a revelation, it practically begged for some amazing backstory (not that the simple truth wasn't already amazing enough).
So this film supposes alchemists in the time of the Emperor Qin develop a substance that allows a person to live forever.
When the emperor's chamberlain falls in love with one of the girls being sent on a mission for the Emperor, both are condemned. The girl, 'Snowy' risks her life to give the chamberlain the alchemists substance. He is then mummified as a terracotta warrior.
The terracotta warrior sleeps and awakens in a new age when a movie is being filmed. Is the movie extra his Snowy? Can there be more than one Snowy?
Overall, I thought the screenplay unique for a number of reasons: 1) It doesn't play out like most cliché time travel yarns; 2) The time spent initially in ancient China was longer than is typical for a time travel movie, and provided a significant pre-story; 3) Although there are a few light hearted anachronism, the film avoids overplaying this aspect; 4) Although some parts of the story were predictable, I genuinely couldn't anticipate a number of the directions the plot took;
I bought the DVD which had an English audio track. However the voice talent sounded so overtly American and didn't really fit tge movie. So I reverted to the Mandarin audio track with English subtitles. This offered much better dramatic effect.
This film is a bit of fun, really.
The discovery of the Terracotta figures was such a shock and a revelation, it practically begged for some amazing backstory (not that the simple truth wasn't already amazing enough).
So this film supposes alchemists in the time of the Emperor Qin develop a substance that allows a person to live forever.
When the emperor's chamberlain falls in love with one of the girls being sent on a mission for the Emperor, both are condemned. The girl, 'Snowy' risks her life to give the chamberlain the alchemists substance. He is then mummified as a terracotta warrior.
The terracotta warrior sleeps and awakens in a new age when a movie is being filmed. Is the movie extra his Snowy? Can there be more than one Snowy?
Overall, I thought the screenplay unique for a number of reasons: 1) It doesn't play out like most cliché time travel yarns; 2) The time spent initially in ancient China was longer than is typical for a time travel movie, and provided a significant pre-story; 3) Although there are a few light hearted anachronism, the film avoids overplaying this aspect; 4) Although some parts of the story were predictable, I genuinely couldn't anticipate a number of the directions the plot took;
I bought the DVD which had an English audio track. However the voice talent sounded so overtly American and didn't really fit tge movie. So I reverted to the Mandarin audio track with English subtitles. This offered much better dramatic effect.