This is a movie version of Candle In The Tomb: The Weasel Grave with some new content written by the Author for Wanda Studios. I'm not sure why the author sold half his work to Wanda and the other half to China Film Group Corporation as this will just create confusion among fans, but I'm guessing money has something to do with it. In any case, this is a much better adaptation of his work than the very average Chronicles of A Ghostly Tribe which deviated from the source content so much the author distanced himself from that film.

The best thing about this movie is the CGI, casting and Tomb Raiding adventure and puzzles. CGI was convincing, and this had a relatively star studded cast. Shu Qi is a feisty Shirley Yang, part of the tomb raiding trio along with Hu Ba Yi (Aloys Chen who can play 20-40 easily with minor facial hair changes) and Fatty (Huang Bo). Angela Baby is gorgeous as Ding Xitian and Cherry Ngan does her best impersonation of a psycho Japanese girl killer. As far as action and adventure is concerned, this movie gives us everything we want.

There are flaws - IMO they made Shirley's character a little too ... brazen? I'm not a prude but I felt there's some things that didn't need to be played out just to pander to "western" audiences, and I'm not referencing anything at the start of the movie, but the Shirley bit and also one scene with excessive swearing. It condensed a lot of the Weasel Grave Tomb items and placed a much larger emphasis on the mystical Equinox flower. The villain once revealed did not accept reality even after things didn't go according to plan. 1969 brainwashed communists portrayed as excessively stupid. Not sure if this is meant to be satire or not. Many things felt rushed and incomplete.

In conclusion, this is a fun, "block buster" type movie that is pretty enjoyable if you don't think too much about it.