Director – Wuershan, Screenplay – Cao Sheng, Ran Jianan, Ran Ping & Wuershan, Based on the Novel Investiture of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin, Producers – Du Yang, William Kong & Wuershan, Photography – Wang Yu, Music – Gordy Haab. Production Company – Mongke Tengri Pictures/Tencent Penguin Pictures/Haifa Culture/Hua Xia Film.
Cast
Fei Xiang (Yin Shou), Yu Shi (Ji Fa), Huang Bo (Jiang Ziya), Narana Erdyneeva (Su Daji), Li Xuejian (Ji Chang), Chen Muchi (Yin Jiao), Xia Yu (Shen Gongbao), Wu Yafan (Nezha), Cisha (Yang Jian), Yuan Quan (Queen Jiang), Wang Luoyong (Bi Gan), Yang Le (Bo Yikao), Gao Shuguang (Yin Qi)
Plot
Yin Shou, a prince of the powerful Shang dynasty, leads armies to conduct a suppression of a rebel province. Fleeing, Su Daji, the daughter of their enemy, stabs herself in the neck with a hairpin after her carriage overturns. However, her body is then inhabited by a fox demon. The returning army comes across her and Yu Shou takes her back to be his mistress. In the midst of the celebrations back in the capital Zhaoge, the crown prince Qi stabs his father the king. He in turn is killed by Ji Fa, the eldest son of Ji Chiang, the Duke of the western province of Xiqi. Ji Fa is one of the sons of the dukes of neighbouring provinces who are held hostage and raised as the king’s sons. Ji Fa faces execution, but Yin Shou pardons him as he steps up to accept the crown. The monk Jiang Ziya and two disciples arrive from Kunlun to present the king with Fengshen Bang, a scroll created by the gods that devours the souls of the dead. The sorcerer Shen Gongbao identifies this as the real article and seeks to get his hands on it. In the fight that ensues, Jiang Ziya is uncertain whether Yin Shou is the correct recipient. As king, Yin Shou creates a brutal regime. The dukes are arrested for plotting treason against Yin Shou and sentenced to be executed by the hands of their hostage sons, although Ji Fa refuses to kill his father. Ji Fa and Yin Shou’s son Yin Jiao uncover the existence of the fox demon and believe much of the evil is due to it.
Hong Kong had invented the genre involving flying swordsmen known as Wu Xia dating back to the 1960s. With the massive international success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), China reinvented the wu xia genre as a series of beautifully lush historical fantasies. Over the years since, China produced the likes of Zhang Yimou’s Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004) and other works such as The Banquet/Legend of the Black Scorpion (2006), Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010) and sequels, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011), The Monkey King (2014) and sequels, Zhongkui: Snow Crystal and the Dark Crystal (2015) and League of Gods (2016), among others. These reimagined the older films on epic budgets that made a virtue of the richness of their cinematography, costuming and set dressings, while reworking the flying wirework with CGI.
Creation of the Gods is based on Investiture of the Gods, a novel published in the 16th Century, which is based around the historic downfall of the Shang Dynasty and its tyrant king Yin Shou in 1046. It was intended as the first of a three-part production with Kingdom of the Storms alone being afforded a $110 million budget. All three of the films were all shot together, but the two follow-ups have been placed on hold. One claim at the IMDB says the film went over-budget and the two sequels are currently on hold as funding is sought for their completion, while another states that they are on hold due to the need to perfect the visual effects. The second part emerged two years later with Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force (2025).
Creation of the Gods: Kingdom of Storms is designed as an epic. It has been called “the Chinese Lord of the Rings.” It seems to be trying to play the Lord of the Rings connection in all ways it can with director Wuershan visiting Weta Workshop and Peter Jackson to consult on how to mount the film, while Barrie Osborne, the US producer of Lord of the Rings, has been brought on board as a prominently displayed ‘production consultant.’
The epic size of the production is evident from the opening scene. Here Fei Xiang tackles a rogue duke and we see his armies lined up massed across a field of ice before the walls of the city. Fei Xiang brings the rogue duke’s hostage son out and demands that he kneel and fall on his sword to make his father surrender. They then use trebuchets to launch fireballs and bring down the walls as the warriors ride through a hail of arrows to the attack. Because the horses are afraid of the flames, it is decided to have them break through the burning gap in the siege walls blindfolded so they don’t bolt. It is a battle scene that is about as epic-sized as it gets.
Fei Xiang as the tyrant king Yin ShouInto battle through the flames on blindfolded horses
Visually, Creation of the Gods is stunning – from the vast armies on the battlefields, the detail of the cities, the crowds lined up outside the palace. The design work is lavish, the costuming rich and sumptuous. The degree of detail that has gone into the creation of the historical era is exquisite. The action scenes are exhilarating. The visual effects are pushed to a level that can easily compete with the output of major Hollywood studios. The only downside is that some of the CGI created characters – the fox demon in its spirit form, the green monkey, the giant rampaging stone statues at the end – look obviously like they are CGI cartoon characters.
The film comes with a massive story canvas and a large line-up of characters – Yin Shou, half-a-dozen sons and hostage sons, the three pilgrims from Kunlun, the duke fathers who are conspiring against the king and sentenced to death, the fox demon. It takes some way into the film to identify all the various characters and factions and which side they are on – even so, I was still losing track of which son was which.
Of particular note is Fei Xiang’s Yin Shou who takes you aback at what a splendidly evil character he is. He has such grandiose schemes as bringing the treasonous fathers to him and then sentencing them to be executed by the hands of their hostage sons. Or visiting the one remaining father (Li Xuejian) in captivity in a cage and bringing him some meat to eat – before revealing that the meat is the cooked flesh of his younger son.
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms was the fifth film for the Chinese director Wuershan. Wuershan has previously made the fantasy likes of The Butcher, The Chef and the Swordsman (2010), Painted Skin: The Resurrection (2012), Mojin: The Lost Legend (2015) and the subsequent Under One Person (2024).
