Rating: C
Dir: Bing Li
Star: Candice Zhao, Dong Yanlei, Jie Zhang, Zhang Cengceng
To be honest, a more accurate – though likely less commercial – title might be Malevolence of the Chinchilla. There are certainly no shortage of ideas here. Whether they are good ideas, and whether the film develops them in an adequate manner… Well, those are very different issues, likely with very different answers. But once you’ve seen a giant ball o’ rodents, controlled by a chinchilla with a grudge, then you will remember this, despite all its failings. It begins with former investigative journalist Xia Tian (Zhao) going on a getaway with four friends. The trip becomes a mystery after they almost run over a little girl, and end up staying at a rundown factory in the middle of nowhere.
This sets our heroine’s spidey senses tingling, because she was looking into polluting factories, until her motorcycle got run off the road, killing a child. Turns out her suspicions are justified. For this is a giant rat processing facility owned by Boss Li, rendering them down into make-up. To improve productivity, Li imported South American rodents to breed with the local stock. Except, it hasn’t quite gone as planned, especially after Xia Tian and pals open the door keeping the animals underground. Turns out the little girl is an orphan who can communicate with animals, and is being coerced into controlling the rats. In particular, the “King Rat”, which looks like a pissed-off Pikachu, but I guess is a chinchilla. [One of her pals has one as a pet]
I did have concerns, remembering Man Behind the Sun, where real rats were set on fire. No such brutality here, with it mostly being CGI. Not perhaps great CGI, yet done with enough enthusiasm to pass muster. The main problems here are on the two-legged side, where nobody makes any significant impression, and the human drama is profoundly uninteresting. The film only ever comes to life once the squeaking starts. Especially once you realize King Chinchilla Rat can mind-control his minions and bend them to his will. This includes merging them into a single, gigantic entity (top). It marks the point at which the film decides to go for it. Whatever “it” might be, and regardless of logic or sense.
And that’s how we end up with Xia Tian overcoming her fear of bikes, instead flying through the air on one, aiming it right for King Rat. This finale is completely – dare I say it – ratshit crazy, and so ludicrously entertaining, it almost rescues the film. There are elements that feel cribbed from Aliens, not something I was expecting. Most clearly, the heroine defending a young girl who’s not her own, from a monstrous threat. But everything else is painfully formulaic, with an evil corporation, ecological message, heroic sacrifice and comic relief fat guy. As a result, I can’t honestly recommend the thing as a whole. Does have its moments though.
This review is part of our feature, When Chinese Animals Attack.