Chinese epic Creation of the Gods II makes grand UK debut at BFI IMAX

Chinese epic fantasy film Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force premiered on Thursday, the second day of the Chinese New Year, at the United Kingdom's largest screen, the BFI IMAX in London, with a wide release starting on Friday in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and other European countries.

Adapted from the 16th-century fantasy novel Fengshen Yanyi, or The Investiture of the Gods, the film is the second installment of the Fengshen Trilogy and the sequel to the Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms.

Continuing the story from the first chapter, Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force shifts the setting to Xiqi city. As the city falls under attack by Shang's army lead by female warrior Deng Chanyu, Ji Fa and Jiang Ziya must unite the civilians to defend Xiqi.

This time, Zhou Wang's eldest son Yin Jiao, who was killed in the last film, is resurrected by drawing power from Yuanshi Tianzun and the other gods of Kunlun Mountain. He returns to Earth as a three-headed, six-armed deity with blue body and red hair, aiding Ji Fa in the defense of Xiqi city and its people.

In ancient Chinese culture, Yin Jiao is known as Taisaishin, a deity of the star Taisui, or Jupiter. He is depicted with blue skin, red hair, and fearsome tusks. "By presenting this image in the film, I want to show overseas audiences that Chinese people can be incredibly imaginative," said the film's director Wuershan during a video-linked interaction with the London audience, joined by actors Kris Phillip, Yosh Yushi and other cast members.

Zhu Yang from China echoed this sentiment, saying that the visual depiction of Yin Jiao's three heads and six arms brought to life her own image of Chinese gods. "I was amazed and proud to see how imaginative Chinese culture can be," she said.

"Also, I think the use of folk songs in the film is very elaborate, demonstrating China's traditional culture," she added.

To create the folk music in the movie, the composer conducted field research in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, home to the modern-day location of Xiqi city, to study local traditional folk music and incorporate it into the compositions.

Adam Morley, creative industries and AI lead at Hertfordshire Futures, a business-led partnership organization, shared his opinions on the visual effects in the movie.

"I was incredibly impressed with the blending of visual effects, special effects, virtual production, and live action. I think the production design was beautiful. It's such an enormous film, and would grace our stage."

Hertfordshire is a famous film-making center in the UK. Some well known films including Harry Potter were filmed here.

Tervel Valchanov from Bulgaria also commented on the film's visual style: "What I really enjoyed was the models of the monsters like the Green Goblin who uses thunderstorm. It's a lot more like eastern style monsters, which you don't really think about when you're thinking of monsters as a western."

Released in Chinese mainland on Jan 29, Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force grossed more than 700 million yuan ($97 million) in just three days by Jan 31, according to Maoyan, one of China's leading online movie ticketing platforms.