Fatal Journey (2020)

This movie was EVERYTHING I had hoped for. The relationship between Nie Huaisang and Nie Mingjue? Perfection. Please give me more like that. I can't say how much I cried but it was a lot, trust me hhhh

The characters were absolutely like I imagined them to be in the original verse. Yes, some of the scenes only made sense in CQL-verse and not novel as well but they were done so good! The effects were kinda bad at the end, but honestly, I was sobbing so much I didn't notice hhhh

In conclusion: watch this if you want to cry about how the Nie Brothers are truly deserving of the title "Best Siblings in MDZS"

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It was absolutely amazing! Tear jerking and thought inducing. CQL ended their series with a blast.

If you love the Nie Brothers or want a great take on the side characters of CQL, this film is for you! The conflict between the Nie brothers will give you a lot of feelings and how they will resolve it through loyalty, trust and outright love for one another is a tier of its own.

The production did an amazing job too. It really has the feel of the hardy QingheNie that they are. The actors did so well giving to life the characters that they played. Mad respect to Ji Li and Wang Yizhou. Their chemistry as siblings is very enjoyable. Plus, the disciples and that one new character? Must protect haha. Overall great film.

CQL pulled off everything for this last bow. 10/10!

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Watched it recently and was kind of underwhelmed, in general.

SPOILERS FOLLOW:

Ok, good stuff: the acting is excellent - even new characters who we never met in The Untamed. Now that we know JGY is evil, it's fun to watch him getting away with so much.

Ji Li does an amazing job as Nie Huai Sang, showing how this naive kid turned into a master manipulator.

Everyone is excellent in their parts, even the kids portraying young Huaisang and young Mingjue - that's not the problem with the movie. The problem is the sub-Indiana Jones bit in the middle, which really drags, culminating in the fight between the two blade spirits, which is terrible, I'm sorry.

I wanted to see more character stuff, instead I get the bulk in an underground burial chamber straight out of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which drags on forever until you realise, with horror, that most of the movie is going to be this.

Even worse, Huaisang finds out about JGY's villainy by literally having it spelled out to him by his brother's ghost.

I wanted to find out about what happened between Mingjue's death and WWX coming back - the last scene could have been Huaisang heading off for Mo Village, with a kind of "I'm visiting an old friend," punchline.

Just like with The Living Dead, the problem is that the producers etc want to do the same thing they did in The Untamed, but in one movie. Except in CQL they had 20+ hours to have character stuff; planning stuff; the occasional CGI monster battle, and so on. They didn't have the same kind of running time for Fatal Journey.

I enjoyed watching it, but the only parts I'm interested in rewatching are the ones featuring actual humans, rather than CGI creations. Also, it was super annoying that the last AMAZING shot of the trailer (Huaisang bowing to JGY ), the one which made me watch it, was also the last shot of the movie.

Also whoever decided (both in this and The Living Dead) that using the weaponized guqin meant releasing a million CGI dots into the atmosphere: you chose . . . poorly.

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5x the action of The Untamed, and a must-watch for those who have finished the drama

There wasn't much in the story to be quite honest, but it was very effective in showing the bond between the Nie brothers and the virtues of Nie Huai Sang. On the other hand Jin Guang Yao, albeit having only a few scenes, managed to turn the events around.

The actors of the Nie brothers were excellent. While they also acted well in The Untamed, they really shined here. We only mostly saw Nie Huai Sang's cheeky side in the series, but here he shows a full range of emotions. In fact it wasn't only his acting that got to shine, it's the depth of his character as well. Not disclosing much, but he has strong virtues (and the stubbornness) that reminded me of Wei Wu Xian, which is also why he probably quickly warmed up to him. Nie Ming Jue, as always, is bad-ass. And in this movie, multiply that bad-assery by 5x.

Also props to another actor who was really into the scene even if he was just in the background. Again I wouldn't want to spoil much, but he is a random Nie Clan disciple who just stands in the background. The other disciples simply wear blank faces (since they're not the focus of the scene anyway), but I noticed that there's one who was really giving his all. I'd like to appreciate all the actors, both the main ones and the "extras".

The strongest aspect of the movie for me, aside from Nie Huai Sang's character arc, was definitely the action. The CGI wasn't really better than the series (it was worse in a few scenes actually), but the suspense was topnotch. The movie ended before I knew it, and that says a lot of good things about this kind of movie that had like 80% action scenes. I really wish I was able to watch it in the theaters because it was that cool! (But thankfully I made a right random choice of watching on a 40-inch screen instead of my phone lol)

All-in-all it was a great side-story to the series. In fact I strongly recommend it to those who have finished it, in order to get more understanding about the ending and Nie Huai Sang's motivations.

AND DID I ALREADY MENTION NIE HUAI SANG'S ENDING SCENE?! THE MOVIE'S ALSO WORTH WATCHING JUST FOR THAT FINAL SCENE ALONE TBH

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I absolutely loved Fatal Journey - it was everything I could have wanted and more! It was fantastic to get to see more of Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue and the Qinghe Nie sect.
What I especially loved about Fatal Journey was the bond between the brothers - getting to see a bit of their backstory, their bond. It was wonderful.
There were so many emotions Fatal Journey made me feel and I definitely cried a time or two.

Also shout out to my new favourite side character - Nie Zonghui. I loved his character so much!

I definitely, definitely recommend watching Fatal Journey!

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For a movie that was supposed to give these characters more depth and present their perspective of the events that were part of what happened in The Untamed, I'd say they leaned too far into simplicity in writing. Little to nothing happens, and the whole movie consists for what feels like less than 10 scenes.

The CGI, still a bit awkward at some places, was still a huge improvement from the drama. What's more, I actually did like the last fighting scene. I would remove the "transformer spirits" from the equation though. There was not that much acting to be done, even though the movie was over an hour long, it felt more like 30 minutes - with that I don't think any performance had a chance to shine.

The best aspects of the Fatal Journey was the last shot of Nie Huai Sang that could be described as "ah yes, this is his origin story". Knowing what's coming next, that shot was truly impactful.

Overall, it's clearly movie that targets TU fans only. It's rather meaningless for anyone who does not have prior knowledge of the overall story.

Ps. Adding black eyes for 2 scenes is not enough to call movie a horror.

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fantastic spinoff! + we don't like jin guangyao

As spin off's go, this is one of the better ones I've seen. This movie contained a lot of information and content from the novel that was glossed over in the show.

We got to see a side of both Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang that was not depicted in the series. The movie showed the depth of their relationship, and helped to bring context to their actions, as well as better visualize Mingjue's downfall. I also always felt that one thing the series failed to represent fully was the power of the Qinghe Nie Sect (at least before you know what happened), and this movie really put them on display and highlighted their history. Additionally, I was delighted to see the more serious (and also smart) side of Huaisang, and how he in effect "grew up". His character development had always been a point of interest for me, and this movie did a great job of bringing his individual plot to life.

I could go on and on about how much I loved this movie for adding more depth and development to Huaisang's (and Mingjue, I won't count him out lol) character, but I'll spare you. In terms of acting and production, in my opinion, it's a bit better than The Living Dead, but still not quite as good as The Untamed. I'll admit, some of the effects had me laughing out loud, but it didn't hinder the story at all. Definitely check this out if you have time! It's well worth it.

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A great addition

I won't lie: I already loved Huaisang, so needless to say I was super excited about this movie!

No spoilers, but I witnessed one of the most intense drama conversations I've ever seen in this movie, which is saying something! The dialogue is so intense sometimes that I found myself holding my breath.
Other times, I was reaching out at the screen, jumping in my seat, and just generally panicking along with the characters (and sometimes before them because the producers pulled that move where the audience knows something the characters don't... I love that)

So yeah, this movie had all the action and fantasy themes I loved from The Untamed series, plus the sharp and impactful dialogues, and it zoomed in on Huaisang. I could ask for no more!
Plus, A-Yao became one of my favorite villains of all time, after I watched The Untamed series, and it was really nice to see him being beautifully evil as well.

The acting, of course, was fantastic. One of the things I thought The Untamed series did very well was that roughly half of the story is told through the looks on people's faces and the most subtle body language. I have to commend the entire cast for the drama, because all of them kept the scenes immersive and impactful with the details in their acting. It couldn't have been easy, having every twitch of your brow mean something to the audience, but those actors sure did bring their characters to life and I love them for it!
The acting was just as well done in this movie, of course! Huaisang was loveable as always, but you get to see quite a lot more of his personality in the movie as opposed to the series. Mingjue was fierce as ever, only maybe a little bit more fierce, and also he has a much wider spectrum of emotion and character depth than he did in the series. You don't honestly learn anything about A-Yao because The Untamed series pretty well covered his arc, but you do get a really personal and direct example of what was going on in the background with A-Yao and the Nie clan while Wuxian was in a deathly sleep for 16 years. On that topic, I can't say any more without spoiling it, so just go watch the movie ;D And after you've watched the movie, rewatch the series (at least the last few episodes) because this movie really adds a lot to the ending of the series. I promise you, it'll be 100% satisfaction. Don't even hesitate, just do it.

The music was pretty, much like The Untamed series. In fact, they reused several musical pieces from the series, so... it doesn't have much of a standalone soundtrack, but there were a few additions, and I thought it was pretty good. It served the purpose well.

And finally, I always try to take a moment at the end of my reviews to touch on anything I didn't like... which, in this case, it's pretty hard to make a list.
Honestly, the only thing I didn't care for was the over-use of special effects (mostly towards the end). It was seriously cringe inducing sometimes. Still, that didn't ruin the movie for me, or even ruin the scene, it just could have been better. Compared to the lack of special effects that sometimes plagued The Untamed series, I'd say this was a better alternative, but it would be nice to see them find a happy balance somewhere in between too few effects and too many.

Try though I have, I can't really think of anything else I didn't love about this movie. It was fantastic, and if you liked The Untamed series- even if you didn't care about the Nie clan particularly- you will enjoy this for sure!

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My favorite character from the untamed is Nie Huaisang. It's very obvious, he the one who doesn't know much. If you have ever seen the untamed you can basically tell that Nie Huaisang is the only one in the show that doesn't fight with a sword. He carries a fan everywhere he goes. What I find funny in the untamed is the fact that he plotted the downfall of Jin Guangyao all by himself. He didn't use a blade to kill him yet he borrowed someone else's blade to kill him. I'm pretty sure this is another part of the reason why Nie Huaisang knows that it was Jin Guangyao was the murder of his older brother. There was 2 reason. The first reason was in the untamed, I think this movie explains the second reason

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