Animal World [Dongwu shijie] *** (2018, Yi Feng Li, Dongyu Zhou, Michael Douglas) – Movie Review

They dress it up well, but this entire 132-minute Chinese thriller is based on a game of rock, paper, scissors. Now that is ingenious. Simple, slick and smart, Animal World [Dongwu shijie] is a winner.

Yi Feng Li stars as aimless youthful hero Zheng Kaisi, who finds himself in debt for several millions of yen after borrowing from friends. To pay off the debt, a slimy old white guy (Michael Douglas), persuades him, or rather blackmails him, to board a ship called Destiny to attend a mysterious gambling party, where dozens of men in debt are also playing the game of rock, paper, scissors. Somehow you have to get three stars off the opponents while losing all your rock, paper, scissors cards. The game is being run by the slimy old white guy, who explains the rules, otherwise anything goes.

If he wins, his debts are cancelled, if not he faces a fate worse than death. The hero Zheng Kaisi desperately wants to get back to his nurse girlfriend (Dongyu Zhou) who is looking after his mom, who is in a coma in hospital. Zheng Kaisi’s best buddy is also aboard the ship, trying to make amends for his scam in making the hero lose all his money in the first place.

The rules seems very simple but boy are they hard to understand! Best just to go with the flow, and enjoy the ride. And the ride is really quite enjoyable, dressed up with the flashiest of visuals, with extraneous car chases, action scenes, monsters and clown effects. The CGI is very impressive, and the production very smart. It looks costly, and it helps along what could otherwise be a really lame idea.

And, thank goodness, at least it isn’t a sequel to anything. An interesting stand-alone, one-off then. But no! But, hey, just when you thought it was gong so well, and you could leave the cinema well entertained, along come the ‘to be continued’ sign.

The appealing Yi Feng Li is pushing 30 but he brings eager-beaver puppy-dog youth appeal to what is really a young adult’s movie. It reminded me a bit of The Maze Runner, with maybe a bit of Michael Douglas’s own movie The Game mixed in. Not a bad mix, that, really, and that surely is why Douglas is cast. It is hardly the Best Actor Oscar winner’s finest hour, but he’s OK. Why is he doing this and not proper acting work at 74? 

The screenplay is by Yan Han, based on the comic Tobaku mokushiroku Kaiji by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. As director, Yan Han brings out all the comic book aspects of the characters and tale. [papering over the cracks of the thin story and screenplay by zesty, imaginative handling, and exciting comic book -style visuals. So good! There’s a bit of The Joker in this as well, by the way, as the hero keep viewing himself as a Joker-style clown. When the going gets tough, send in the clowns!

Michael Douglas won the Best Actor Oscar for Wall Street (1987) and shares a second Oscar with Saul Zaentz as producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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Yi Feng Li (centre) stars in Animal World [Dongwu shijie] (2018).