The Legend of Ba Yi's Grandpa (2024)

EXCUSE ME?!?!?????

What the heck?! I did not expect myself to come out at the end of this film thinking "You know what? I somehow enjoyed my time with it". I went into it like "I'm feeling mindless right now, I only have 2 brain cells working left, so I wanna consume something shitty, something that I can forget" so I opened up a fresh incognito tab and clicked a random movie that would pop up on youtube. I even watched it on 2x speed as well, but here I am making a review.

First 5 minutes of the film, I was already regretting my decision, I thought "Oh my god! Why am I here? What have I done to myself?...". The first half of the film is like a shitty comedy-horror. The horror aspect didn't even scare the living shit out of me, I'm like stone-faced during the horror moments, but the comedy parts are somehow landing though, so that's good I guess. And then around the middle, it somehow turned into a life drama with mild romance in it and like "Wait?! It's actually cooking something" because the writing became somewhat good, it was wholesome, I'm loving the character development, the dynamic, the chemistry is tickling my heart and I thought "Ah! I know where this romance is going, I've seen a lot of scumbag MLs, I can see what their tryna pull from a mile away" but then they went into a direction that I did not expect and then resumed the shitty comedy-horror from there, then turned the film to action-comedy, with life lessons at the end.

That's the whole film. It was such of a mess, but they still somehow tied everything well and it made sense, I don't know why.

The acting in this film was good as well. In the beginning, since this was a throwaway film, I was expecting the actors/actresses would just deliver a bog standard job and call it a day, but no, it wasn't the case, or maybe some of the side characters. The main actor did a great job, he's funny, even though his character was such a scumbag, I liked the development, but how it ended was dumb fun. The main female though, did a great job acting as a blind poor person, she didn't stand out in the beginning that much, but when the romance part came in, it gave her character the time to shine. Side characters, they're all good, but there's that one side character that really stood out to me. And it's that old lady who's overseeing this ghost marriage during the ghost wedding part, I don't know. It's just the way her voice acting really caught my attention and I was like "Woah! I like her. she's doing a great job for a minor character."

I don't know if is this my true opinion or if it's the coffee because I'm making this review with 2 coffee bullets of americano in. So yeah... again I can't believe I somehow enjoyed that film, but I wouldn't rewatch it again though, that's for sure.

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No tomb-digging, just literally an expanded storyline about the downfalls of the mc

ISTG THIS IS THE PREQUEL TO CITT IM REQUESTING AN EDIT TF NOWWWW
So i randomly search the grave robbing tag and came across this movie released in 2024? I can not find info about it being part of Candle in the tomb from iQiyi, and other irrelevant websites. BUT I KID YOU NOT

1:24:47 provides the famous phrase that unites each Candle in the Tomb story "鬼吹灯“, 6:17 mentions his grandson is Hu bayi, along with his best friend Wag kaixuan 6:27.

So i'm taking it upon myself to add the related titles.

STORY
honestly this story was confusing at time, started out with a horror set out of rats coexisting as humanoids but like never explained that storyline apart from oh there is a precious smart rat passed down generations that watches over you like a guardian angel....? The story remincines over Hu Bayi's grandpa in his younger years, where he is framed, cheated, and basically experiences supernatural horrors that lead him towards death's hands.

Basically the story synopsis on MDL gives you the entire plot of the movie.

The frustrating thing is. the movie literally gives you 5 mins about the MC character development... what? exactly, its not really a worth film to watch. there is some superstitions that are played with buts that what 4/5 of the story is. Yea the story dives into/sets up a little romance storyline but is quickly extinguished and moves back to all the bad misfortunes the mc deals with lol

The only good thing would prolly be the ending where the legacy passes onto Hubayi through the famous phrase "Ghost blows candles".

ACTING/MUSIC
Okay i guess, not super wow thats life changing acting but also not super super poor. The music is dramatic when it needs to be.

Its a subpar story nothing really special, kind of a waste of time, nothing valuable really attracts me. The mini horror supernatural phenomemons are somewhat interesting but are all undermined as they never really tie into a major storyline that gives them important meaning + plus they were all hallucinations.

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