If The Legend of Jiang Zi Ya was not a cheaply made movie about the titular character, then it did a good masquerading as one. The CGI was close to home computer level quality. Jiang Zi Ya would most likely be a familiar character to the audience and perhaps that's why the writers glossed over anything resembling character development, but by doing that it significantly lowered the stakes for the characters in the movie.

Jiang Zi Ya battles a river demon after it has eaten the parents of a little girl named Phoenix who were fishing on a raft. After imprisoning the river demon, Jiang is called on the carpet by Primus. Primus tells him he must apologize for hurting innocents during his battle with the river demon. Jiang steadfastly refuses and is subjected to 15 years of lightning bolts and then being thrown down to earth as a mortal. The now grown Phoenix rescues him and miraculously carries his bruised and bloody body into her hut. The villagers quickly turn against him thinking he is responsible for another river demon threatening them and try to feed him to the giant fish. He ends up saving a little girl from being eaten and is now hailed a hero. The local earth god shows up and lets the cat out of the bag as to who he is. He sends Jiang to the Mausoleum of Deification to retrieve his Deity Whip. Phoenix who feels indebted to him for saving her life years ago, agrees to accompany him as does Rocky, the idiot who loves her. Rocky is the kind of sidekick who makes sure they leap from the frying pan into the fire on various occasions because of his lack of intelligence and self-control. While escaping an ancient ax-wielding demon, Jiang is hurt. Goddess Phoenix (yeah, I have no idea why she looks just like earthly Phoenix and the writers didn't explain) tells mortal Phoenix to transfuse blood into him. This seems to give him his powers back, but it could be because goddess Phoenix was mixing her blood in, too. Again, no clarification by the writers. They finally arrive at the resting place of the whip but are stopped when a voice tells Jiang if he takes the whip, the villagers will die. Our hero goes back to the village sans whip and now has to battle the river demon who has escaped his prison and is looking for payback.

The ending deals with sacrifice and benevolence. Thankfully, after all the sacrifices the women in Jiang's life made for him he's learned to let go of romantic love. Didn't help those women, but at least he's free to go on his heroic way unfettered to do his Investiture of the Gods work.

The movie relied on primitive looking CGI and the battles weren't exactly tension filled. The fight choreography was simple and unimaginative. Primus looked suspiciously like The Eye of Sauron.

Despite the low quality effects Benny Chan and Niu Ze Meng were likeable in their roles. They fell in love awfully fast. Of course, hers could be hero worship and for him she was a ringer for his girlfriend (who he hadn't seen in 100 years). The acting aside from the main two characters was cringe-worthy. One older woman's job was always yelling someone's name repeatedly when there was danger. "My granddaughter!" "Phoenix!" "Xiao He!" It became humorous after a while. The version I watched used English names for some of the characters in the subs, just to make you aware there are different versions out there.

Aside from the female doppelgänger situation, the story was easy to follow. For the most part it was entertaining despite the cheesy CGI and acting. The ending was a letdown as it used the female sacrifice trope I am well and truly over. I began to think the river demon cleaning house wouldn't be such a bad idea. Clocking in at just over an hour, The Legend of Jiang Zi Ya doesn't require much commitment but it could strain your patience.

3/16/23