The Biggest Movie You Haven't Heard Of

Though it hasn’t made much of an impact over here, The Wandering Earth, a big budget science fiction film from director Frant Gwo (and based on a short story by Liu Cixin) is not only the third highest-grossing film of 2019, but the second-highest grossing Chinese movie of all time. So it’s kind of pathetic that this film that is as big as any Avengers movie in the Chinese market right now dropped on Netflix recently with no fanfare whatsoever. The streaming platform definitely has a problem when it comes to promoting good foreign content, with Bong Joon-ho’s Okja and Lee Chang-dong’s Burning (both excellent films) being previous examples of poorly marketed Asian exports.

Without elevating The Wandering Earth to quite the level of those, it really is a movie that deserves to be seen by anyone who loves crazy science-fiction ideas, grand special effects extravaganzas, and even disaster movie intensity. It`s on a scale quite unlike anything I’ve seen of Chinese cinema (though I`ll admit my point of reference is minimal). It banked on being able to compete with American blockbusters, and it certainly does.

The story is set in a (adorably naïve) future where humanity unites in the face of climate change and more specifically, a dying Sun, to construct giant fusion-powered thrusters all over the eastern hemisphere of the Earth -which are then used to propel the planet out of its orbit on a centuries long mission to Alpha Centauri. Liu Peiqiang (Wu Jing) is an astronaut on the space station navigating Earth`s trajectory, while his son Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) lives in one of the underground cities. When a gravitational slingshot around Jupiter goes awry, the planet is drawn into its pull knocking out numerous thrusters and causing cataclysmic earthquakes. As Liu Peiqiang tries to right the ship, Liu Qi, his sister Han Duoduo (Zhao Jinmai), grandfather Han Zi’ang (Ng Man-tat), and a posse of other disparate people caught up on the frozen surface attempt to find safety and restart the failing engines before it`s too late.

This is one of those science-fiction movies where the science really doesn’t matter. It`s easy to pick apart, and I`m sure most scientists would agree it`s theories are sketchy at best; but this movie`s no more meant to be a logical vision of the future than its` Korean cousin Snowpiercer. Instead, it seems to embody the narrative spirit of the great early speculative stories like From the Earth to the Moon, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and The War of the Worlds, while indulging in the technical aesthetic of the modern genre conventions. It uses imagery of the familiar to convey the far-fetched, and doesn’t let realism get in the way of being absurdly creative with its visuals.

The Wandering Earth takes a lot of cues from American disaster movies, most obviously Armageddon, and so it revels in grand special effects sequences of destruction and mayhem. But unlike its conventional American counterparts, this movie has a rich and already-devastated world to play around in; and so we get sequences of an armoured truck outmanoeuvring a crumbling landscape of ice like something out of a subzero Fury Road, or a Gravity-like flight around a chaotic and labyrinthine space station to enter it, or a descent through the endless shaft of a Shanghai skyscraper in the aftershock of tectonic tremors. Moments like these are really fun and captivating, and benefit from a plot and world that’s already engaging. This could have so easily just turned into another Geostorm, but the movie for its well-earned moments of sincerity, delights in its silliness.

And then there’s just the CG effects themselves. Movies like this remind me that sometimes the strive towards photorealism in VFX that’s so often a staple of Hollywood blockbusters is an artistic crutch. You don’t often believe in the environment of The Wandering Earth as “real”, but that doesn’t make it any less visually stimulating. There’s a grand pan-out shot early on that establishes an elaborate sense of the state of Earth, which is quite remarkable, and a number of other shots, especially once Jupiter has filled the sky that are simply astonishing. The art direction is marvellous, conjuring allusions to gorgeous sci-fi concept paintings.

The movies’ notable shortcoming though is in its cast of stock characters, none of whom have much a chance to build a fleshed-out personality. Liu Qi is the designated hero, Liu Peiqiang is the dedicated scientist, Han Duoduo is the innocent caught in the carnage, the Australian-Chinese convict Tim (Mike Sui) is the comic relief, rescue team leader Wang Lei (Li Guangje) is the hardened soldier, etc. The troubled relationship between Liu Qi and Liu Peiqiang could have amounted to something, but I doubt it would have been much more than the typical estranged father-son dynamic of many a disaster flick. And despite a theme of Liu Qi having to look out for his sister, they barely build a relationship either. Han Zi’ang is probably the most likable and interesting as the teens’ guardian and unsuccessful conman with a touching backstory. There are a few heartwarming moments in this film, some in expression of that unattainable humanist ideal that unfortunately can’t help but feel slightly shallow given one of the pivotal actions in the final act.

It’s a shame The Wandering Earth didn’t receive much of a theatrical release outside of China. It’s clearly a movie that was made for one. But the American movie industry’s insulated market aside, it’s a film not to miss regardless. It’s genuinely one of the most ambitious high-concept blockbusters in recent years, shockingly original for something of its scale, has some potent commentary on climate change inaction, and its’ unifying optimism is refreshing in such a frequently nihilistic world.

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