Long Hổ Sơn Trương Thiên Sư: Kỳ Lân (2020)

Chen Cheng’s Taoist Master: Kylin is the quick fire sequel to Wu Yingxiang’s Taoist Master (released just a few months ago, already online), with Fan Siu Wong returning in the role of Zhang Taoling, the founder of the first organized form of Taoism, flanked by his disciple (Li Lubing, also returning). This time, Master Zhang arrives in a village near Mount Yun Jing, where Kylin, the legendary God of the Mountain, is rumored to prey on hunters and those foolhardy enough to venture into the mountain. While Taoist Master was on the higher end of Chinese direct-to-VOD films, this sequel is disappointingly average: it lacks the refreshing presence of Zhang Dong (who played a feisty huntress in the first film), it’s criminally low on fight scenes (one of the original’s strong suits), and the plot is the usual thudding supernatural set-up resolved with the censorship-placating hallucination card.

云锦山下，出现神秘巨兽厮杀村民的事件，张道陵携弟子王长路过，恰遇村民丧命一事，张道陵觉察村内异样，便决定留下探明真相，随着调查的深入，张道陵坚守行道立德，济世立人的思想，查明真相，教恶人放下执念向善。