A very ambitious film which combines the stylistic features of adventure/fantasy films like
with a typically Chinese flavour, Mojin is a production of a size never before seen in China, with 1,800 scenes, of which 1,530 have special effects, almost 3,000 hours of filming in studios, the construction of dozens of underground settings and, above all, the collaboration of three giants of the film industry: Wanda, Huayi Brothers and Enlight.
The three divided up their tasks: Wanda lent not only their circuit of cinema screens, but also the rights to four tales from the popular fantasy series
Ghosts Blows Out the Light by the writer Tianxia Bachang – the other four tales of the series were adapted from the big screen in 2015 by the director Lu Chuan in the film
Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe; Huayi lent their production expertise and the ability to attract a stellar cast, while Enlight contributed with its marketing network.
The result was a production with a massive budget for China’s standards – US$35m – one that is comparable to Hollywood films, and it earned more than US$250m.
The main challenge the film faced was that of the censors: the original story follows a trio of tomb raiders searching for hidden treasure, but subject matters like ghosts and supernatural phenomena in China are still taboo, so the story was not easy to adapt for the big screen.
To remedy the problem, the screenwriters decided to omit from the title the mention of spirits, and while they kept the original characters, they modified the narrative, which in the film revolves around modern Mojins, who uncover tombs not to steal, but to reveal mysteries from the past.
Despite being a fantasy film, Mojin touches upon various periods of China’s history: the 80s, when everyone dreamt of becoming entrepreneurs and going abroad; the 60s of the Cultural Revolution, when youngsters in the cities were sent to rural areas to be re-educated; the 40s of the war against Japan; not to mention old imperial history.
The main characters in the film, Hu Bayi, Wang Kaixuan and Shirley Yang, belong to the 82nd generation of Mojins, court officials tasked with raiding tombs by an ancient Chinese emperor who needed money to feed his troops who were at war.
The three have left the profession and are living off their wits in New York, complaining about the shortcomings of life in the Western world. In 1988 Wang Kaixuan is employed, through a ruthless smuggler of Chinese artefacts, by a mining company run by a kind of high priestess of an esoteric cult which wants to find the Equinox Flower, the symbol of the unity between life and death.
Wang Kaixuan – followed by Hu Bayi and Shirley – therefore returns to Mongolia to explore the tomb of an ancient princess in the hope that the flower will be able to resuscitate the girl that both he and Hu Bayi were in love with as youngsters during the Cultural Revolution.
Ding Sitian died when the fanatic Red Guard group – to which she belonged alongside the other two – in an attempt to destroy symbols from the feudal past, accidentally fell upon an underground Japanese military base, unwittingly unleashing the fury of the Japanese zombies buried there. In the hope of turning back time and bringing Ding Sitian back to life, the Mojins enter the princess’ tomb, but unleash the powers hidden therein, which turn men into zombies, bring down the walls of the tomb and lead the group into a terrifying underground fantasy world…