Asian Film Review: Treasure Hunter (刺陵)

'Treasure Hunter' (刺陵) won't come out for another week, but I was lucky enough to get to go to the HK premiere ( see my Red Carpet pics of Jay Chou and Lin Chiling here).

On the surface this is basically a Chinese version of 'The Mummy' (like Mummy 3 except the good guys are Chinese too).  It also has a lot of influence from Indiana Jones (right down to the leather jacket and whip).  This time its not Harrison Ford though, its Jay Chou who is the hybrid adventurer / do-gooder / protector of antiquities from tomb robbers who comes to the aid of the beautiful Lin Chiling,  who is basically the Marian character from 'Raiders of the Lost Arc' - the estranged daughter of the protagonist's mentor.  They're in a race to discover the lost city buried underneath the Mongolian desert before some mild antagonists, played by Eric Tsang and Chen Daoming.

The best way to describe this movie is that its a popcorn movie.  Don't expect academy award winning material and you'll probably be OK with it.  The story is intentionally unclear as you go -- a lot of the character's backstories are told through flashbacks as the movie goes, so at the start you may be thinking 'wait a sec, what's that guy's deal?' (eventually they tell you).

Despite what you may think, the amount of 'tomb raiding' type stuff is minimal in the film, most of the action takes place out in the desert... (apparently Inner Mongolia is very Mad-Max-esque)

There is a good amount of CG, which is done decently well.... but also a LOT of wire-fu! Drawbacks in storytelling and overly complicated plot aside,  the film is visually well done,  good camera work,  nice scenery, etc.  I'm guessing it definitely wasn't an easy shoot. Like 75% of the scenes take place outdoors in the deserts of Western China! 

Bottom line:  I'll recommend the film to fans of Jay Chou or Lin Chiling,  I think you will get exactly what you're looking for from the film. 

PS - I also highly recommend the film to fans of Ian Powers,  he has a entertaining action part at the very beginning of the film. "我媽媽送給我".