The Death Game

Story: Lin Yun (Yang Dezhan) takes a coin from a group of bandits, which entitles him to participate in the "Five Poisons Game", which is about life and death. Several participants from the Jianghu have gathered to prove their skills in five tests hoping to go home with a gigantic gold treasure at the end. Five masters watch the game and bet on the participants, and they are also the ones who developed the various tests. Lin Yun pretends to be a nameless hero, but due to his coin, people seem to know who he is. However, it soon becomes clear that he cannot be that person. Among the participants with whom he reluctantly joins forces is the girl Qiao Yu (Wu Shuang), who needs the gold to save her father as he needs an expensive cure. Another participant, Ning He (Huang Tao), who is seemingly an honorable hero, turns out to be unscrupulous, same goes for a Buddhist monk. You can't seem to be able to trust anyone in the games, which only appear to be about the poison of various animals. In fact, they are about people's bad qualities being put to the test, such as greed. As the games progress, Lin Yun's past is revealed, and so is the fact why he swore never to kill again, which is a big hurdle for him in the games. But what are his motives for participating then? Because it doesn't seem to be about the gold ...

Review: Of course, I can't miss out on watching a wuxia movie that has a pretty good rating and seems to offer at least some sort of unusual elements. This time you get the feeling that the movie took its cue from various anime/series on Netflix that try to score points with a "shock factor" and whose unusual rules are supposed to make you think. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes clear that the individual rounds of the game in "The Death Game" offer hardly anything interesting and are instead generally quite disappointing. Most people might expect more from the fights too. There are simply too few altercations, and what we do get clearly shows how much better the movie could have been if... we had just gotten more of it. However, on the positive side, you have to mention that the locations and sets are nicely chosen and that the world with its numerous characters is well designed. And even though the story may be pretty typical at its core, at least it doesn't leave us completely cold.

The focus is on the swordsman Lin Yun, who clearly seems to be an anti-hero, but has sworn not to kill anymore - and therefore inevitably becomes the hero of the story, especially since he also saves the lives of the girl Qiao Wu and some other players. He doesn't seem to be particularly enthusiastic about it, but we find out later why he acts that way. To be honest, though, it is not really convincing when he says, for example, that it was just a coincidence or a whim that made him save someone, and that this very mood could make him kill someone at some other point too. He is clearly the good guy in the story. One of the villains, on the other hand, is the swordsman Ning He, who is dressed in white and might at first be mistaken for a good-natured advocate of justice. However, he lacks real character, and so the Buddhist monk, who is a little person, is the real focus of our hatred, as he is always extremely deceitful and constantly manages to weasel his way out of any problem.

The real strength of the movie is indeed its fairly colorful personalities. None of this may be original, but there is an implied love story between an apparently mute giant and a fellow player who you would initially classify as sneaky, only to then realize that both are actually not that bad after all. Unfortunately, these are exactly the people you would have wished to get a little more background story on, but you don't. At the very least you would have enjoyed knowing more about Qiao Yu than just the fact that she needs the prize money because of her sick father. The story about the movie's hero is also supposed to establish some drama, but it doesn't work. The flashbacks are introduced far too late and even with them, we still can't quite tell how the swordsman from back then is supposed to be different from the present one. In addition, there are the rich and powerful who organize the games, and who remain complete clichés and hardly differ from each other. Especially since they came up with the various games, it would have been nice if the content of the games had reflected the respective inventors and their characters.

The games are therefore quite disappointing. It doesn't have to go into the direction of "Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler" or the probably much better known "Squid Game", but as a basic concept with some wuxia in the mix, things could have turned into something quite original. But here we only get a narrow bridge over a chasm as a highlight. The labyrinth through which the fighters have to find their way while enduring drug-induced hallucinations and facing their secret fears, for example, is neither original, nor is the idea executed properly, so that we would be able to learn something about the other players' psyches. Instead, the round is over before it has even really begun. Every now and then you therefore find yourself wondering whether "The Death Game" might have been more exciting if it had just been about a competition in sword fighting. Because if you were hoping for a few nice fights, you will be disappointed in this respect too. Only one confrontation is well-done, but the finale, for example, is an anticlimactic disappointment.

Visually, however, you can definitely only praise this wuxia flick. The costumes and sets are well done, and with ideas like the repeating crossbow, which works like a machine gun, pleasant fantasy elements are included too, but all this is just not enough if the games don't work. The rules need to force the heroes into a moral dilemma but still make it possible for them to preserve their humanity. At the same time, there have to be clever ideas and a few twists. But that's exactly what "The Death Game" lacks. Including one single twist, which is actually not a twist because the resolution is absolutely predictable, doesn't cut it. All this is not enough for a thumbs up. If you've been left high and dry for a while now and you are eagerly searching for a wuxia flick, you will by no means be disappointed here, but with "The Wild Blade of Strangers" or "Eye for an Eye 2" there are better options available on the streaming service iQIYI, where this movie can also be found, options which include better sword fights and offer more complex stories.

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