The Mystic Nine Side Story: Ganges Killing the Trees (2016)

No Clue What the Ganges has to do with it

I expected the movie to take place in Hindustani or something, but nope. It's right there on the outskirts of Changsha, China like the other movies. * shrug *

Anywho...

Like Tiger Bone Plum Blossom, this is not a side story. It is a prequel. It's the story of how Huo Jin Xi became clan head just like TBPB is the story of the Xie's head. This movie was kind of good. The story was fairly solid and interesting. Members of all the Mystic 9 families were trapped and are being murdered and they don't know why or by whom. It's up to the remaining members to solve the riddle to survive. That's a pretty good premise for a web movie.

The production was good. There weren't a lot of sets nor characters. It was better than I would expect for something that was aired online. Don't expect the quality of a theatrical release. It was as good as a tv movie. The acting was so-so. Some people could act and some couldn't and it showed. Wang Mei Ren was impressive as Huo Jin Xi. Too bad they didn't let the character show what she could do in the Mystic 9 series. She was pretty pathetic and conniving in MN, but here she was kind and a bit of a badass. I guess they wanted to show her real personality and why she perhaps changed.

The music supported the movie. It was nothing special. My rewatch, as always, is 0. I guess I should say n/a. I'd say it's worth watching if you watched MN.

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Slightly better Story, but still Mediocre Quality

Start off, this movie was slightly better than MNSS: Flowers Bloom in February. Only slightly though.
Again I question why these movies were made if the production and quality were so terrible. Garbage.

This story is set Pre-Mystic Nine Drama setting, where Huo Sanniang had not yet been the head of the Huo family. The ending is open ended, but leads to show that there is a common enemy at this period. He appeared in Tiger Bones Plum Blossom too. I suspect all 4 movies are actually Pre-Mystic Nine setting.

The acting was mediocre... However, they didn't CGI the background, so I appreciated that aspect. The plot was unsatisfactory because half was answered and half was left in the open. I hated all the characters in the movie. Huo Sanniang was ok, but not any better.
I think it would be a cool to make a Pre-Mystic Nine Drama to see how the group worked together before and fight against the "Mystery Man". I'll leave it at that.

WARNING SCENE - there's a topic of abuse in the movie (you can see in the tag) so be careful.

My advice, watch in this order:
1. Four Belongs to Abelmoschus (Warning! some scenes are hard to swallow, well for me at least)
2. Tiger Bones Plum Blossom
3. Ganges Kiling the Trees
4. Flowers Bloom in February (Don't even waste your time watching)

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