''A Writer's Odyssey'' () is a 2021 Chinese

action-adventure An action-adventure game is a video game genre, video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements f ...

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fic ...

directed and written by

Lu Yang Lu Yang (; born 1979) is a Chinese film director and screenwriter best known for his works '' My Spectacular Theatre'', ''Brotherhood of Blades'' and '' Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield''. Early life and education A native o ...

and produced by

Ning Hao Ning Hao (; born 9 September 1977) is a Chinese film director. Ning studied at the Taiyuan Film School, where he majored in scenic design. He later transferred to the Art Department of Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public ...

. The film was released February 12, 2021, on the

Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a new year based on lunar calendars or, informally, lunisolar calendars. Lunar calendar years begin with a new moon and have a fixed number of lunar months, usually twelve, in contrast to lunisolar calendar ye ...

. The film is based on

Shuang Xuetao Shuang Xuetao (; born September 8, 1983, in Shenyang), is a contemporary Chinese novelist. He graduated from the Jilin University School of Law. In 2010, Shuang happened to see that the newly established China Times International Chinese-language ...

's novel of the same name, and its sequel ''Godslayer''.

Plot

The film follows Guan Ning as he searches for his daughter, believing her to be kidnapped by human traffickers. Soon, a powerful corporation contacts him and offers to find his daughter if he assassinates Lu Kongwen, a young novelist. The plot of his novel involves a young hero attempting to overthrow Redmane, their tyrannical ruler. Somehow, the novel appears to be impacting life in the real world, and the CEO, who suspects it as his bane, wants Lu dead.

Cast

Lei Jiayin Lei Jiayin (; born August 29, 1983) is a Chinese actor best known for his roles in the films '' Guns and Roses'' (2012), ''How Long Will I Love U'' (2018), ''A Writer's Odyssey'' (2021), '' Full River Red'' (2023), and '' YOLO'' (2024), as well a ...

as Guan Ning *

Yang Mi Yang Mi ( zh, s= 杨幂, t=, p=, born 12 September 1986), also known as Mini Yang, is a Chinese actress and singer. She began her career as a child actress in '' Tang Ming Huang'' (1990) and transitioned to adult roles in the 2000s, gaining recogni ...

as Tu Ling *

Dong Zijian Dong Zijian (, born 19 December 1993) is a Chinese actor. He is best known for his roles in ''Young Style'' (2013), '' Mountains May Depart'' (2015), ''De Lan'' (2015), and '' At Cafe 6'' (2016). Early life and education Dong is born in Beijing, ...

as Kongwen Lu, the novelist *

Yu Hewei Yu Hewei (; born 4 May 1971) is a Chinese actor of Hui ethnicity best known for his role as Liu Bei in ''Three Kingdoms'', as Cao Cao in '' The Advisors Alliance'', and as Shi Qiang in ''Three-Body''. Biography Yu was born in Fushun, Liaoning ...

as Li Mu * Guo Jingfei as Black Armor

Special appearance

Tong Liya Tong Liya ( zh, 佟丽娅, born 8 August 1983) is a Chinese actress of Xibe ethnicity. She first gained recognition in '' The Queens'' (2008), followed by roles in the television series ''Palace'' (2011), '' Beijing Love Story'' (2012), ''Ordinar ...

as Pan Ruo *

Dong Jie Dong Jie (, born 19 April 1980) is a Chinese actress and dancer. Dong made her debut in Zhang Yimou's '' Happy Times'' (2000) ( Yimou girl), playing a blind girl mistreated by her stepmother. Zhang selected Dong after a casting call on the Int ...

as Guan Ning's wife

Production

Post-production lasted over two years.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. Harris Dang of ''

The AU Review Larry Heath is an Australian publisher, events organiser, and entrepreneur. He is the founder-owner of Heath Media, which publishes online magazine ''The AU Review'' and hosts the National Live Music Awards. Heath is associate producer at Soun ...

'' gave the film 3.5/5 stars and wrote: "Overall, ''A Writer's Odyssey'' is an entertaining thrill ride that provides enough wild action, energy, creativity, and visual splendor to satisfy audiences." Richard Kuipers of ''Variety'' said "''Odyssey'' is packed with stunning sights including a 50-ft., four-armed CGI villain but is let down by a script that fails to fashion promising story elements into a consistently compelling whole." Narayan Liu of

CBR.com ''CBR'', formerly ''Comic Book Resources'', is a news website primarily covering comic book news, comic book reviews, and comic book–related topics involving movies, television, anime, and video games. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publicat ...

gave the film a positive review, praising its visuals, while noting the weak characterization. Lim Yian Lu of '' Yahoo! Singapore'' gave the film a positive review, describing it as a "a great action film to watch." Tay Yek Keak of ''

Today Online ''Today'' was a Singaporean digital news magazine published by Mediacorp. It was originally established on 10 November 2000 as a free print newspaper, competing primarily with Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) ''Streats''. In 2004, SPH announce ...

'' gave the film a more negative review, describing it as "basically a viewer's ordeal."

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Writer's Odyssey, A 2021 films 2021 3D films 2021 fantasy films 2021 action films 2021 adventure films IMAX films