The Legend of the Naga Pearls (2017)

The Legend of the Naga Pearls (2017)

5/10

Starring

Wang Talu

Zhang Tianai

Directed by Yang Lei

Well, this movie was surprisingly captivating. I was really interested in figuring out what it was all about. Why did a man have a blue glow on his hand? And what’s all this talk about winged people?
The questions were answered, and knowing the movie was set in a fictional world called Novoland made it easier to accept the many impossibilities that unfolded.

This Chinese fantasy adventure film was produced in a way that makes it easy for everyone to enjoy and follow. That said, it was very predictable. No matter how hard the movie tried, it couldn’t shake off that shadow of predictability. Still, I’ll give it credit for making the effort.

The plot starts with a tale of how winged people and humans once lived side by side. The winged people decided they wanted dominion over the humans, and a war broke out. The humans won, killing many winged people, while the peaceful ones were allowed to live among humans.
We’re introduced to a young boy with a blue glow emanating from his hand. He was bullied as a child, with other kids cutting him to see where the glow came from. He grows up to become a thief, calling himself the Saint of Thieves.

Many of the winged people lost their ability to fly after the war due to the lack of a particular substance their wings need. One winged person, Vlad, whose wings are still intact, is plotting to regain dominance over the humans. He and his crew decide to acquire a weapon that will help them achieve this. To activate the weapon—a doorway to another realm that will release creatures to kill all humans—they need two items. Vlad already has one, obtained by killing a prince and raiding his collection of rare artifacts. The second item is a blue pearl called the Naga Pearl.

Opposing Vlad’s plans is a winged woman named Raven, who works as a security authority in the human world. Her brother, however, works with Vlad. Another key figure is a human prince seeking revenge for the death of his kin at Vlad’s hands. The third member of the trio is Ni, the thief with the glowing hand. He’s the one who found the Naga Pearl, as his hand seems to have a connection to it. Ni and his team know the pearl spells doom if Vlad gets it, so they’re on a mission to destroy it, while Vlad and his crew are hot on their trail to retrieve it.

The set design is beautiful, and you’ll get plenty of eye candy throughout the film.
As you can see from the plot above, it’s pretty predictable, and the movie feels like it was made to set up sequels. What I don’t get is why they didn’t do more to make it less predictable. I’m not sure if the movie was a hit in China, but I don’t see it becoming a word-of-mouth must-watch.