Here we have China’s attempt at Hollywood-styled blockbuster moviemaking: an unapologetically loud, unharmonious science fiction themed epic that prizes aggressive escapism above all else. The film’s makers evidently studied blockbusters like ARMAGEDDON, GRAVITY, THE MARITAN and INTERSTELLAR (all of which are directly “quoted”) quite closely, and utilized a very Hollywood-friendly framework in which CGI enhanced action sequences are utilized to prop up a narrative that’s perilously thin otherwise.
THE WANDERING EARTH (LIU LANG DI QIU), loosely based on the similarly titled 2000 novella by Cixin Liu, was reportedly offered to James Cameron, Luc Besson and Alfonso Cuaron, all of whom turned it down. It ended up directed by the decidedly less auspicious Frant Gwo, who managed to get the Chinese superstar Jing Wu to appear on a deferred salary. Released in February 2019, THE WANDERING EARTH quickly became one of the year’s highest grossing films, nabbing close to $700 million in China. The film’s US release was far less auspicious, occurring on Netflix, who following an extremely limited theatrical release televised it with little-to-no publicity.
The film’s set-up involves the depletion of the sun, which has turned the surface of the Earth into an icy wasteland and inspired mankind to construct underground cities. Vast jet engines designed to propel the Earth out of the Sun’s orbit have been constructed in major cities throughout the world, but a malfunction sets the Earth on a collision course with Jupiter.
Caught up in this drama are the troublemaking brother-sister duo of Duo of Hu Kou and Liu Qui, who reside in an underground city beneath China. They decide to cut school one day and head for the surface, where they steal a massive ice crawler. They’re caught and reunited with their truck driver grandfather Han Ziang, and the trio is pressed into service to help reignite one of the Earth-moving engines. At the same time Hang’s cosmonaut son Liu finds himself in orbit around Jupiter. He and his fellows are about to head back home when they get wind of what is occurring, and are likewise pressed into service to save the Earth.
In keeping with its Hollywood forebears the whole thing is quite CGI-happy (with “atmospheric pressure” depicted via misty trails emitting from the Earth to Jupiter) and scientifically questionable, but so fast-moving and incident-packed that the viewer is never allowed to think long enough to fully register the narrative implausibilities (unsurprisingly, the credited-to-six-writers script was, in true Hollyweird fashion, heavily rewritten throughout the production). There are explosions aplenty, a propulsive Hans Zimmer-esque score and a succession of intense action sequences that are only occasionally incoherent. Of things like character development and narrative nuance there’s very little, but then I seriously doubt anyone choosing to watch this movie will be too concerned by their absence.
The film, in short, delivers exactly what it promises and nothing more: bombastic Hollywood-style entertainment. Its ultimate failing is that it feels like exactly what it is: an inferior knock-off of a type of film that, frankly, Americans do best.
Vital Statistics
THE WANDERING EARTH (LIU LANG DI QIU)
Beijing Culture/Netflix
Director: Frant Gwo
Producers: Frant Gwo, Peikang La, Gong Geer, Ge Song, Jing Wu, Joe Zhang
Screenplay: Gong Geer, Junce Ye, Yan Dongxu, Frant Gwo, Yang Zhixue, Ruchang Ye
(Based on a novella by Cixin Liu)
Cinematography: Michael Liu
Editing: Ka-Fai Cheung
Cast: Jing Wu, Chuxiao Qu, Guangjie Li, Man-Tat Ng, Jim Mai Jaho, Mike Kai Sui, Hongchen Li, Jingjing Qu, Yichi Zhang, Huaoyu Yang, Zhigang Jiang, Huan Zhang, Jiayin Lei