5 Star

The Start of an Epic Fantasy Trilogy.

Up-and-coming director Wuershan (The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman, Mojin: The Lost Legend) lands an epic job in bringing the Fengshen Trilogy, and he has smashed it out of the park, as we see awesome battle scenes, fantasy creatures and good and bad magic go head-to-head. Based on the 16th century Chinese novel Investiture of the Gods, it is set some three-thousand years ago when Sheng Tang established the Shang Dynasty, where the four Dukes, one for the North, East, South and West, all paid homage to the Shang Monarch the King of All Realms along with eight hundred Lords.

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms starts some five-hundred years into the Shang Dynasty when Su Ho (Ashton Xu, The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman), Lord of Jizhou, refuses to pay homage to the King of All Realms. King Yi (Huanshan Xu, Confucius) sends his second son Yin Shou (Kris Phillips, Painted Skin: The Resurrection, The Hospital (TV Series)) and his specially trained force, consisting of the sons of the four dukes as hostages. Two of these are Ji Fa (Yosh Yu, Born to Fly) and his best friend Yin Jiao (Luke Chen, The Starry Love (TV Series)), this is partly their story.

One of the sons is Su Quanxiao (Jingyao Shan), the son of Su Ho, who does not recognize his son from the ramparts, after eight years. Yin Shou says that he is his father now. This is where we see the temperament of this explosive film as he gets Su to fall on his sword, before the siege is broken and all the Su Ho’s lineage is removed from the record books. The chase ends at the Xuanyuan Tomb, where Su Ho and Yin Shou battle it out, even cracking the mountain and allowing some of his blood to seep down to the sealed tomb far below the surface. All this violence causes an avalanche as it comes down the mountain side, Su Ho’s daughter Su Daji (Naran) commits suicide using her hair pin.

But when the snow clears, Su Daji is very much alive and Yin, Ji, Jiang Wenhuan (Tim Huang, Dark Blue and Moonlight (TV Series)) and E Shun (Yunrui Li, Never Stop) have a dilemma, none of them want to kill a beautiful woman. So she is chained and taken back with the injured Yin Shou and as he deals with his wounds, a drop of blood lands on his boot which she quickly licks up (odd). He tells her she is to be executed at dawn on the walls of his Zhaoge City, but she says she is different, and she licks his slab wound, which heals instantly.

I know what you want… King of All Realms!

From now on, the Shang Dynasty will never be the same again. As the Kingdom of Storms and the Great Chaos is about to befall on the Chang Dynasty.

It is time for the Fenshen Bang to be delivered unto the World.

Cling onto your seats as we go on a wild and fantastical journey of ancient Chinese history, where demons and fantasy beasts rub shoulders with Alchemists and deities. Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms stands up to any fantasy trilogy out there. Awesome Fantasy Ride.

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms is in Cinemas Now