The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity (2020)

Straightforward story with fantastic acting, cinematography, and CGI

Quick disclaimer: I have never read the original novel or known anything about this prior to the movie.

For a movie like this, you don't necessarily watch it for a surprise twist (although there were a couple that I didn't see coming). Probably because this movie is based on an old and famous novel, these are tons of stories that have this kind of storyline nowadays, so it was fairly easy to predict what was going to happen. The scenes in general can be on-the-nose about their messages.

BUT! I was totally okay with that because I was still able to enjoy the movie. All the actors were fantastic. The sets were incredible. The CGI was really incredible (and I was told that some stuff wasn't even CGI, but done by the makeup department). So, you can tell how grand this movie was and how much money, labor, and effort was spent on it.

I want to especially stressed the acting. If the actors were not world-class level, this movie would not have been so emotionally moving. Even though the messages of this story were pretty simple, it was taken to another level thanks to especially the four main actors--Mark, Allen, Olivia, and Wang Duo. They were perfect.

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EVERY BIT OF THIS MOVIE IS TO WATCH FOR

Watched this because of Deng Lun, but OMG every part of this movie is really good from the storyline which is actually checks out, the plot, the actors, the characters, the visual effects (also one of the reason I watched this after I've seen the trailer) and the emotion in this movie is really superb! I just can't take my eyes off of this movie from start till the end. It was well-written and I really like the line-up of cast in the movie they are really good and executed well their characters. This movie should be watched even once by everyone!! Highly recommended kudos to everyone who is a part of this movie production.

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A perfect story

The story was captivating, the pace was really good and the storytelling was almost flawless from beginning to end. CGI, costumes and make up were stunning, the choreography of the fights was awesome.

I appreciate it a lot that they took their time to tell everyone's story (expect for Bora's, that one came up short, though you might argue whether their was actually enough told for the story). That way I could connect with them, understand their actions and enjoy their adventure. The acting added its sweet part as well, so there wouldn't be anything to complain about. I mean, there was no dull moment, not even for a second.

The music was fantastic. Sweet and melancholic, creating a perfect mood.

A round about satisfying watch that depicts the concept of "Yin and Yang" in an understandable and impressive way. As a side snack you get a nice bromance, too~

(On a side not, what I didn't get was the serpent at the beginning and the one from the main story... That one wasn't the same, was it? But if not, why were there more than one? The story sounded like there was only one. But if it was that one, how's that possible since the main one was concealed at that time?)

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Not a groundbreaking story, but the visuals are top quality

Visuals visuals visuals. This is a gorgeous film to watch. The plot was fun and epic, but some parts unexplained or confusing. Unfortunately, the main characters and their relationship felt underdeveloped so the final impact was not as strong. Shame since I enjoyed the two actors, but they didn't have a lot to work with. Also, I went in expecting more about brotherhood, fighting demons, waking up the guardians, but got way more love story than I asked for. Probably a movie that would've been cooler to watch in a theater. I would recommend if you are a fan of the cast or like fantasy.

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Impressive but Big Error at the Climax

(1) Cinematography
First of all, the cinematography of this film is superb. The depiction of all scenes, the gestures of all actors/actresses are beautiful. The CG is both well designed and properly brought about. The teams involved in the art direction and cinematography deserve the biggest applause.

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(2) Acting
All the actors/actresses did a very well-done job even the supporting or guest roles have left a deep impression on me. I'm especially impressed with the actor who played He Shou Ye after finding out at the end of the whole story what kind of performance this actor actually deliverer for the film. (I put the further detail in the spoiler box at the bottommost as it could be a spoiler kind of information.)

Also, I'm especially fond of the actor who played The Golden Spirit, such adorable in the cool/serious character he has portrayed. I have to rewind again and again to watch the scene of his desperate run.

All the important characters including Qing Ming, Bo Ya and the princess don't have the kind of flaw that leaves a sting in my heart to recall after the movie.

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(3) Story
But.. the film makes a big error in the plot at the climax which is the vital pillar that the story needs to resolve to the ending, therefore this mistake is unacceptable. (To explain what it actually is would be a spoiler as well, so I'll mention this further in the box at the bottom.)

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(4) Dialogue
There's one part of the dialogue that bothers me. It's the finishing line right at the final scene. I can see the director/writer try hard to give a beautiful/impressive finishing line to end the film, but the result is instead a superficial dialogue. It's just a shame because throughout the story they don't have that many words the characters have to speak. There're only sufficient and adequate, and that makes the whole way until that final point a graceful, pleasing path. At the end, though, the characters start to create a set of conversations with overly decorative words. Too much intended decoration and that makes things lose their true meaning. In the end, those words just become gibberish to me.

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(5) Music
As for the music, the style is quite cliche and often reminds me of RPG background music style. Most of the pieces are so-so, not initiative though can go along with the story flow quite fine. Anyway, a few pieces have been mixed with the local music style which I like and think goes well with the movie's ambiance. They try to compose the music for action scenes by fitting the musical rhythm/melody with the choreography. I also appreciate that. The editing, though, isn't the highest skilled. I can still often hear the sharp seam at the transitions when two pieces are put next to each other.

That's all. Below is the spoiler part.

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The error: Qing Ming is supposed to be able to teleport to only the places he has experienced in person like visiting or seeing with his own eyes, but at the climax he teleports into the snake's stomach without even having ever met the snake before. He's never been/seen the place in its stomach so that teleportation should have been impossible.

The actor: He played two roles in the movie that I didn't recognize as the same person at all while watching!
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Home theatre reduces the experience > Should have been in THEATRES for INTL audience too

Awesome Cinematography , Action Scenes and Background Score. Home theatre reduces the experience a lot for these portions.

Storyline : For a New Viewer , its a bit disconnected , First half is Slower as compared to second half , But sit through that else Story will not make much sense.

Acting : Chun Xia surprised me the Most and Mark Chao's QM ended up being a slight disappointment as compared. Wang Duo is a decent Actor BUT if you place him 90% in the scenes with Mark Chao it weakens his strength. Besides even with Older makeup he looked Younger him. His Best part for Finale Fight and death stares. But his romance with WZW doesn't hit hard when a Mark Chao and Deng Lun are in there.

QM is a soft guy but his body language isn't hence MC is a bit misfit. Mark is a Manly guy acting a softie which makes it a bit hard to see the overall show. His fight scene while Stopping an Impulsive Boya are good. His comic teasing are FUN but whining isn't.
BY is impulsive & confused but Denglun legit portrays it without much Dialogues. Kudos to that & He is not Over the top rough guy but figuring stuff out. The right limit to act and Overact was displayed in the Movie. His disciplined action scene are done Good.
Wang Ziwen is pretty and Her climax scene strikes Gold. If not her Wang Duo's ZX Priest words are not that Powerful to leave an impact. It was her Fangyue's desperation that Changed the game. Chun Xia character I wish had more time. She was Fun.
Mark Would have been a Far better Shou Ye /The Master or even Denglun ,the Romance then the tragedy would have been 10000 times better , WD was better suited as QM /BY. Because he looked the youngest.

Movie is worth a Watch! Cuz Mark Chao and Deng Lun are rare to Find at one Place.

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Heavy on the CGI but light on the story

Watched this last week after I caught a trailer on YouTube. I love Mark Chao and I appreciate his talents, but the material he chooses to participate in is hit or miss. This latest project is no different. The trailer was very heavy on the CGI and that gave me some trepidation, as I had caught him in a Detective Dee movie and was underwhelmed by the lack of story. This one has some great martial arts scenes but, again, the plot is light but the special effects are dazzling.

The non-existent plot is the classic good vs. evil one with a little bromance thrown in. The artistic visuals were really something you would find in a high graphic video game. Cool visuals, gorgeous costumes but light in the story. Heck, it was a video game on screen.

Mark himself proved once again the strongest character in terms of performance. I just wish I could see him in more noteworthy projects. I enjoyed his work in Love and I am hoping to find more films of that caliber to watch. This one puts food on the table, nothing more. I sense this was an expensive film to make and, for the price tag, they could have afforded better writers.

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The One Great Love and Sacrifice

Wow what a combination of great performances, execution, story, stunning visual effects and production! This drama not only boasts an obviously high -budget production but it also delivered in every factor that mattered, It is difficult to find a great balance of everything nowadays, where one seem to excel in one thing, it glaringly lacks in another. But this movie was just stunning overall. It was ambitious but it never strayed further to compromise its storytelling. Everything complemented each other and this was boosted further by sincere performances by the leads, most notably Mark Chao and the Princess.

Mark Chao seem to have this command on screen and side by side with Allen Deng, it just elevated the quality of the movie even more. His expressions, down to the tiniest ones, conveyed so much emotions that even when he was doing those hand signals, what might have looked ridiculous and taken away from the scene just integrated nicely with the whole experience because he did them so convincingly.

The whole story was about the good and bad, yin and yang and how this concept, which is not new, have played out in this one compels you to watch it and grabs your whole attention. More than the stunning visuals and Mark Chao's performance alongside Allen and Olivia Wang, the story had substance and direction was solid. I thought whilst watching this movie how great the novel it's been adapted from must be seeing this all play out on screen. This movie has really captured the essence of the story because as someone who didn't have prior knowledge of the novel, everything was easy to follow along and the concept and flow were all very logical.

I have seen a behind the scene of this prior to its release and what drew me the most in that video was how high-budget it seemed to be and of course the cast who are a few of the most well-known faces in the Chinese entertainment industry. But like with a lot of other productions with impressive budget and visual aesthetics, I had my reservations because many fail to put importance on the actual story. You can breathe a sigh of relief with this one because it really felt like the story was done with sincerity that it really radiated with it.

It's been so difficult to get into any show these days but this movie grabbed my attention from the get-go. I was captivated the whole time and I enjoyed the whole ride. Really happy I gave this a chance and I cannot wait to see Mark Chao in a fantasy drama again, hopefully in the near future!

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This subtle BL romance (bromance) between Qing Ming and Bo Ya takes us to a historical period in East Asia, where demons rule, and the whole film is filled with action fantasy and mysticism. But the actual story is very convoluted and sometimes I almost got lost in it. Apparently, it should have been like that because of Onmyoji's design (or to simplify it a little?), anyway, the lowest rating from me for the story out of all the evaluation criteria. Played excellently, convincingly (Mark Chao, Allen Deng), there is a huge potential of actors in China. Fantastic fights, spectacular visuals, great effects and design really impressed me. But the music, it was absolutely the BEST and in the final passages of the film it directly communicates "something" very subtle between the two main characters, only the actors can't express it better because of Chinese regulations. Nice experience.



Tato subtilní BL romance (bromance) mezi Qing Ming-em a Bo Ya-em nás zavádí do historického období východní Asie, kde vládnou démoni a celým filmem prostupuje akční fantasy a mystično. Vlastní příběh je ale hodně spletitý a někdy jsem se v něm téměř ztrácel. Zřejmě to tak asi mělo být kvůli předloze Onmjódži (nebo malinko zjednodušit?), každopádně ode mě za příběh nejnižší hodnocení ze všech hodnotícíh kritérií. Zahráno výborně, přesvědčivě (Mark Chao, Allen Deng), v Číně je obrovský potenciál herců. Fantastické souboje, velkolepý vizuál, skvělé efekty a výprava mě hodně zaujaly. Ale ta hudba, ta byla úplně NEJ a v závěrečných pasážích snímku přímo sděluje "to něco" hodně jemného, co mezi oběma hlavními postavami je, jen to nemohou lépe herci kvůli čínským nařízením vyjádřit. Hezký zážitek.

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