CHANG'AN FOG MONSTER

I’m working on what may be a long-ish blog about Godzilla vs Kong. For today, you’re getting some comments on a 2020 Chinese monster movie called Chang’an Fog Monster. I watched this movie on YouTube, sans English-language dubbing or subtitles. In other words, I’m not anywhere near sure what the film is about. Here’s a plot of sorts cribbed from Movies and Mania website:

During the Tang Dynasty, Chang’an City was suddenly flooded by a thick fog, and everyone fled in panic. Xiao Cheng was guarding the weak prince and was trapped with the civilians, waiting for the fog to dissipate. However, the thick fog did not disperse as expected, and the people who walked into the thick fog did not return. The sky-shaking monsters in the thick fog gradually revealed their hideous features. Xiao Cheng tried hard to protect Chang’an.

SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD

The movie doesn’t take long to show us the main monster. We get a scene of the guard and the prince walking through town. Then that fog rolls in. Tentacles shoot from the sky, grabbing townspeople, knocking over carts and stands, scaring viewers easily impressed by decent special effects.

The main monster is a floating cloud creature that seems to command nasty birds and dog-like creatures that look like Gozer’s pooches from Ghostbusters. The guard, the prince and some temporarily lucky citizens end up in in some sort of temple or restaurant or tavern. Take your pick.

Those taking refuge from the monster include a stuffy young waiter, a lovely lady of easy virtue, a nasty drunk with some surprises up his sleeves plus the usual bullies, haughty elites and frightened members of the lower classes. Many manage to get themselves killed because they are too stupid to stay away from windows.

One of the more interesting characters is a warrior woman dressed in black. She’s fun to watch in action. As with many Chinese films, the wire work is pretty good. The filmmakers know how to stage some fine action sequences.

At one point, the guard, the prince, the warrior woman, some tough guys, some old guys and some citizens venture out into the fog in search of...I’ve no idea. Are they looking for a more secure place to shelter? Is there an escape route out of town? Is there a huge sale at the mall? Your guesses are as good and probably better than mine.

The group does pick up an adorable little girl who has been hiding in the bottom of a food stand since the fog creatures first showed up. The guard, prince and warrior woman take the young girl back to the relative safety of the temple/tavern where they enjoy a really nice looking meal. Until the monsters figure out that those paper walls are pretty easy to bust through.

Sidebar. Scattered throughout the movie, the guard has memories of a little girl who may or may not be his daughter. She does bear a resemblance to the girl they found. There seems to be a connection between the guard and the warrior woman. End of sidebar.

The drunk gets into arguments with pretty much everyone. He pulls out a vial of condensed fog, which allows the monsters easy access to the shelter. Even among the trapped humans, there are fights, murders and a suicide. The warrior woman sacrifices herself to make sure the battered guard, the prince and the little girl can escape into the streets. Which shouldn’t be any safer.

Except the sun comes out, the fog dissipates and a bunch of armored soldiers come marching into the town. I’m not sure how these guys knew there was a problem unless one of the other folks who left the tavern actually made it to safety.

We have established this movie confuses me. Its ending confuses me even more. Because I kinda sorta think it was a dream the prince was having until he was woken up by his guard. This is followed by some off-screen commotion that makes me think the carnage caused by the fog monsters is now happening for real.

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Every now and then, I get the urge to watch a Chinese monster flick like this. Most of these movies come from Youku Tudou Inc., a video hosting service based in Beijing, China. They offer movies in lots of different genres. It’s a pretty big outfit.

I don’t think they make any of these movies. They distribute them and a surprising number of them are available on YouTube.

I can’t recommend Chang’an Fog Monster. It’s not very entertaining. However, if you’re so inclined, you can find it here.

I do recommend doing a YouTube search on “Chinese monster movies.” I’ve found some good films there and even many of the lesser ones are no worse than the Syfy Channel originals back when that network was fun. If you enjoy those movies as I did, it’s worth your time doing that search.

I’ll be back soon with more stuff.

© 2021 Tony Isabella