Creation of the Gods Trilogy

Action

Fantasy

封神第一部：朝歌风云

Beijing Culture

Century Changshengtian Film

Tencent Penguin Pictures

Maoyan Entertainment

Huaxia Film Distribution

China

普通话

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms

Yu Shi

Kris Phillips

Li Xuejian

Huang Bo

Narana Erdyneeva

Chen Muchi

Xia Yu

Yuan Quan

Chen Kun

Ci Sha

Wu Yafan

Hou Wenyuan

Tim Huang

Li Yunrui

Xu Huanshan

Gao Shuguang

William Feng

Wang Luoyong

Yang Lixin

Ding Yongdai

Gao Dongping

Yang Le

Xu Chong

Shan Jingyao

Wu Hankun

Daniel Yan

Wuershan

Lu Wei

Barrie M. Osborne

James Schamus

Zhonglin Xu

Wang Yu

Timothy Yip Gam-Tim

Tiffany Wu

Sang Lin

Tim Wong

Monkodran

Yu Fei

Cheung Ka-Fai

Zhang Bowei

Wu Xuejun

Du Yuan

Sun Ye

Jacob Tomuri

Huang Shuo

Du Yang

Bill Kong Chi-Keung

Fang Yingchun

Qiu Sheng

Douglas Smith

Yang Jiang

Zhao Nan

Zhang Cheng

Josh Bryer

Jeremy Ball

Huang Baorong

Ran Jianan

Cao Sheng

Ran Ping

Luo Shanshan

Wuerhan

Huimin Han

Gordy Haab

Xixing Lu

CinemaSerf

As with any film that's the first in a trilogy, this spends just a little too long setting out who's who but once it does, this develops into an enjoyable fantasy adventure film that brings a wonderfully vibrant myriad of Chinese mythological and human characters to life. Ancient rivalries and battles between humanity, the deities and some marvellously created mystical beasts - especially the dragons - form the basis of the story set some three millennia ago. Personally, I tended to the side of the immortals - and there's even the slightest hint of a bromance for one of them - as the "Demon Fox", and the manipulative "King Zhou" use mankind's greed, avarice, loyalty and decency to ensure they retain their place at the top of the mountain. The visual effects are usually top drawer and the action scenes avoid the often lazily constructed, repetitive, style of combat scenes. Now the acting isn't the best - indeed there is plenty of woodenness for us to inspect here, and I also found it a bit over-scored, but the richness of the mythology could, a bit like "Lord of the Rings", perhaps, provide for more characterful adventures and personality development in the next film. For a part one, though, it's a long, but increasingly quite compelling watch if you like the genre and appreciate the wealth of stories before us. Get comfy though - we're in for a long ride!

This was quite fun!

"The Investiture of the Gods, also known by its Chinese names Fengshen Yanyi and Fengshen Bang, is a 16th-century Chinese novel and one of the major vernacular Chinese works in the gods and demons genre written during the Ming dynasty." Yes please, give me more!

This is the second time this year I'm being treated with the mother goddess Nuwa in media, and being mixed Chinese and only recently learning this part of Chinese mythology, I am happy for it!

It's a long movie, so strap in. I don't complain about movie length unless it's a snore and this isn't. The CGI isn't perfect and it can "feel" off sometimes but it's fine.

I ain't got much else to say. Enjoy!

Making-of: An epic 10 Years in the Making...

Official Trailer [Subtitled]

Best Movies

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Yu Shi

Kris Phillips

Li Xuejian

Huang Bo

Narana Erdyneeva

Chen Muchi

Xia Yu

Yuan Quan

Chen Kun

Ci Sha

Box office

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