The wind blows from the west
Our Mojin Xiaowei gang of tomb raiders are back in the third instalment of the web series, which began in 2016 with Candle in the Tomb. Pan Yue Ming, Zhang Yu Qi and Jiang Chao reprise their respective roles of Hu Ba Yi, Shirley Yang and Wang Pang Zi since they were first cast in the first sequel, 2020’s The Lost Caverns.Based on the 3rd volume in the Ghost Blows Out the Light (鬼吹灯) novel series written by Zhang Mu Ye, our three intrepid adventurers’ quest for the elusive Dust Bead (translated as Fowl Dust Orb) continues. Aided by the clues gleaned from the Book of the Dragon Bones which was found in Shaanxi’s Lost Caverns (aka Longling Maze), this time the search takes them to the hidden worm valley of the ancient Western Dian Kingdom, where the mausoleum of its founder, King Xian, is located.
The production crew from The Lost Caverns, led by director Fei Zhen Xiang and screenwriter Yang Zhe, remained in place for this project. Principal photography wrapped up in May 2020 and took place primarily in the exotic Yunnan region of Southwest China.
I’m extremely pleased to say that the overall quality of the production, adaptation and technical execution remains excellent, as it was during the team’s first outing together in The Lost Caverns. The storytelling continues to be compelling and riveting, while the fine balance between character development, witty humour, edge-of-the-seat thrills and dynamic pacing has been expertly maintained to keep viewers sufficiently engaged and entertained.
As is the tradition of the Candle in the Tomb web series thus far, expect great visual aesthetics, well-rendered special effects, widely varied BGM score, awe-inspiring set designs for the catacombs and, of course, no Mojin adventure would be complete without horrifyingly surreal adversaries. The scale of the action, CGI rendering and the overall technical difficulty of tomb raiding have increased exponentially in the drama. The immersion of local culture as well as aspects of Feng Shui and Taoism into the plot setting remains outstanding. This truly is a great example of a well-crafted “single location raid” concept.
This being their second outing together, there really isn’t much left to critique on the performances by Pan Yue Ming, Zhang Yu Qi and Jiang Chao. I honestly believe that retaining the main cast largely helps in preserving the chemistry of the lead characters, thus resulting in a deeper conviction and believability of the portrayed camaraderie. Additionally, it enables viewers to build a stronger connection to the characters in their journey of exploration as well as self-discovery along the way. It certainly did with me.
This has been another hugely entertaining and satisfying viewing experience. Once again the story has not come to the end. The answers found in the worm valley of Yunnan have led to even more questions, thus deepening the underlying mystery. As such, we have two more sequels lined up where hopefully the puzzle could be unravelled, namely The Kunlun Shrine and Raiders of the Wu Gorge. Stay tuned for more thrilling tomb raiding adventures in fascinating faraway locales!
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GBotC continues being good
The formula still works.If you enjoyed the previous series, you'll like Worm Valley.
Most of my other review points still apply - the writing is tight, the story has structure and the pacing is mostly very good. The short length really helps.
There's not a whole ton of character development, because the heroic trio are more iconic than dramatic characters. So Old Hu does his feng shui, Shirley kicks and shoots things and Fatty is greedy and annoying. For the most part it works, but sometimes it was a bit frustrating how one note they could be. (Fatty especially could use SOME development)
The production value is great. I'm not sure this even cost that much money, but it looks excellent - everything from sets, CGI to shot composition are well thought out and executed.
This season we even get wonderful rubber monsters (not a spoiler since they're in the trailer) and more!
The treatment of indigenous people was also mostly ok - they are humanized and act both heroic and villainous depending on character. Cool stuff!
It looks like the story is taking us to snowy freezing Kunlun next, and I can't wait!
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Most disappointing drama of the year
The Worm Valley was one of my most anticipated dramas of 2021 having watched both its predecessors. Tomb raiding plus a good production crew is a sure-win formula in general, so I was shocked that it failed so spectacularly. I actually extended my WeTV subscription specially for this but still I did not finish the series, and that tells you how bad it is.I have seen many domestic reviews of this series saying how it is a departure from the original novel and due to censorship there are scenes which cannot be filmed and the excitement level took a huge drop because of all these restrictions. I am not concerned about these things. I will admit that I have read the novel before, but I cannot remember anything from it so I am looking at things without bias.
The biggest issue about this show is pace. The show spent about 8 episodes getting into the tomb. Mind you, the length is just 16 episodes. Literally half the time was spent dilly-dallying on things which are not supposed to be the focus. What was more outrageous was that the tomb exploration itself was lame. One episode fighting an invincible worm and another episode fighting a cluster of monsters, with very basic background digging and puzzle solving. There is no excitement at all. It drained my interest in the lore, and the fights were just run and gun.
The next thing which bothered me was how deliberate the jokes were. They were so not funny that it became awkward watching all these scenes. The romance subplot was another thing that turned me away. Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang should not making long eye contact inside a crashed plane. The romance subplot should be subtle and natural. This is NOT a romance drama! There is no need and no place for inconvenient, cringeworthy tropes. These are recurring scenes in the drama and I had to fast forward through all of them.
I am not sure what happened, because the show is wrong on so many levels. It is perplexing because I had so much faith in the cast and crew. Unfortunately, the drama was a huge let down. I still have my fingers crossed for the sequel though.
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