Rating: D+
Dir: Tao Yuan
Star: Xi Lu, Xue Bi, Haocheng Zhang, Letian Chen
a.k.a. Invasive Species
It may be telling that the film isn’t even sure about its English title: the print goes with the one above, while the poster prefers Big Bug Disaster, which does have the benefit of a certain rhythmic quality. However, the alternate title has a bit more class – albeit unwarranted. It also has a hint of depth, because it could be argued that it is the humans who are the “invasive species” here, rather than the giant centipede depicted in the promo art. It may also be telling, that I have spent a quarter of the review debating the merits of the various names by which this goes. Sure beats talking about the film.
It begins sprightly enough, but do not be fooled. All the footage you see there actually comes from later in the movie, and this is why it doesn’t make a great deal of sense. We then head for an urban environment: it’s China in the year 1937, when Beijing has just fallen to the invading Japanese forces. A train is heading for Shanghai with the usual mix of characters you get in disaster movies. And, yes: disaster strikes. The track gives out, plunging the passengers into a ravine. In a testament to Chinese engineering, they survive almost unscathed, and seek refuge in a nearby village, which is all but cut off from the outside world. It’s not as safe as they think, and the party is soon tearing itself apart too.
For it turns out there is a rich seam of gold nearby, where nuggets can literally be chipped out of the walls in a shallow cave. The only problem? The F-sized centipede which lives there. The preferred mining technique for the locals involves taking a goat with you, digging out what you can while the resident creature is distracted, then legging it. Naturally, the new arrivals ain’t got time for that. See what I meant about us being the “invasive species”? The cynic in me suggests it also makes sense, since there is not enough giant insect here, and nor is what you get, better than mediocre.
The quantity issue is shown, in the way the film largely has to steal from its climax to provide the obligatory action at the beginning. Although most in the genre will provide a stirring opening, they won’t be re-using the footage later on. Quality-wise, I wasn’t impressed. While the colossal centipede certainly hurls people about with some vigour, it’s painfully apparent they are actually flying by wire, with the CGI monster copy-pasted on top of the live-action footage in unconvincing style. The design is okay: it’s very spiky, and kudos to the sound engineer on this project: who knew centipedes could roar like that. However, you might be better off just gazing at the poster for 75 minutes – it’ll provide around the same effect.
This review is part of our feature, When Chinese Animals Attack.