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About Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (Chinese: 封神第一部：朝歌风云; lit. 'Investiture of the Gods Part One: Zhaoge Turmoil') is a 2023 Chinese epic fantasy film directed by Wuershan. It is the first film in the Creation of the Gods trilogy, adapted from the 16th-century fantasy novel Investiture of the Gods written by the Ming dynasty author Xu Zhonglin. The film was released in China on July 20, 2023.

The first film mainly narrates the fantastic and fictitious version of the political fallout following the ascension of the last king of Shang dynasty. The two sequel films of the trilogy are due to be released in 2024 and 2025, with the second film focusing on Xiqi's defense against Shang's attack, while the third film features Xiqi's counterattack, eventual victory and establishment of the Zhou dynasty.

Substances

Lord Su Hu of Jizhou defies King Di Yi of Shang dynasty, who sends an army commanded by Prince Yin Shou to conquer the rebels. After great losses sieging the fortress, the Shang army break parts of the wall, and Shou leads a regiment consisting of his personally trained hostage-son warriors in a cavalry charge to raid the city of Jizhou, wiping out the Su clan. Su Daji, the daughter of Su Hu, commits honor suicide but emerges alive from the wreckage, captured by Shou's warriors.

Shou presents the severed head of Lord Su and the captured Daji to his royal father. However, during the victory feast, Crown Prince Qi (Prince Shou's brother) suddenly becomes deranged and murders King Yi, before being accidentally killed by Ji Fa, a hostage-son from the western state of Xiqi. Shou ascends the throne per line of succession, but divination during the coronation signals that the patri-regicide leading to his ascension resulted in a great curse upon the Shang dynasty. Shou promises to build a sacrificial pyre to self-immolate as a ritual to please the Heavens, satisfy the gods and save the realm.

Meanwhile, the Immortals of Kunlun discuss whether to release the Investiture Scroll, entrusted to their safeguarding 500 years ago and has the power to restore order and save the world from the curse. One of Yuanshi Tianzun's disciples, Jiang Ziya, volunteers to sacrifice forty years’ immortality to deliver the Scroll to the mandated overlord of the realm but quickly realizes he is an amoral, manipulative tyrant who should not acquire such power receiving the scroll. Shen Gongbao, an alchemist and rival monk to Ziya, desires the scroll's powers and attempts to trap the immortals. They escape the palace with the Scroll, pursued by Crown Prince Yin Jiao and his closest friend Ji Fa. Ji Fa almost secures the scroll but abandons it to rescue Yin Jiao from Ziya's two superpowered nephew-disciples, Nezha and Yang Jian, when they arrive to rescue him. The Kunlun trio encounter Ji Chang, Ji Fa's father and the Duke of the West, who has been summoned to the capital Zhaoge to greet the new king. Ji Chang finds a green-skinned demon infant in the forest and takes pity on it. Ziya suggests it be taken to Kunlun to be raised; Ji Chang agrees and, hearing thunder, names him Lei Zhenzi.

Duke Chang secretly meets up with the other three dukes of the East, North and South, all skeptical over the legitimacy of Shou’s ascension. However, their meeting is discovered by Shou’s royal guards, arresting them for plotting high treason. Shou forces the Dukes’ hostage-sons to personally execute their fathers. Chong Yingbiao, son of the Duke of the North, complies without hesitation; E Shun, son of the Duke of the South, refuses and attacks Shou who kills the both of them; the Duke of the East impales himself on the sword of his son Jiang Wenhuan to spare him; while Ji Fa cleverly argues that it would be a greater humiliation for his father to publicly confess faking divination than to execute him. Duke Chang is temporarily spared and sent to a dungeon. His eldest son and heir Bo Yikao (Ji Fa's brother) comes to plea with Shou, who kills him, cooked his flesh into patties and forces Duke Chang to eat them, having him confess to treason by threatening his remaining son Ji Fa, and publicly humiliated through parade.

Meanwhile, Jiao finds and pursues a man-eating fox spirit in the palace, discovering it to be possessing the body of Su Daji. However, Daji has become Shou's favored consort, and the King instead accuses Jiao of attempted patricide. After Queen Jiang dies trying to kill Daji, Jiao also attempts to kill the fox but is injured by its attacks. Ji Fa secretly helps Jiao escape the palace and collaborates with Ziya and High Priest Bi Gan, Shou's uncle to expose Daji's true nature in front of King Shou. After Bi Gan sacrifices his magical heart to force the fox spirit out of Daji's body, Shou reveals that he knew that the fox spirit is a demon all along; imprisoned by Shang's forefather Tang, the blood of Shou in the Jizhou battle accidentally broke the seal and released the fox, so she tempted him into becoming the Overlord of All, leading to Daji who by spirit possession causing the previous crown prince to murder his father before impaling him on his own sword. Disillusioned about his royal father, Jiao attacks them but is knocked out and arrested; the fox returns to Daji's body. Shou then orders Ji Fa to kill his father; he seemingly obeys and returns with a bundle resembling a severed head. Shou razes the ancestral temple and defiles it by copulating with Daji among the ruins.

Shou condemns Jiao to be publicly executed, but Ji Fa demands Jiao to be released with the hostage-sons from Xiqi rising up to fight the other royal guards. The severed head he presented is also revealed to be fake; Lei Zhenzi, whom Chang rescued earlier, took him away from the city. Chong Yingbiao decapitates Jiao, but Nezha and Yang Jian arrive to retrieve his body and head. Ji Fa then fights Shou pushing him down the palace wall into a drum. Ji Fa starts to flee with Jiang Ziya and his Xiqi compatriots. Jiang Wenhuan, who is in charge of guarding the city gate, decides to let them escape the capital and block the other Shang pursuers. Shen Gongbao transfers his soul to two Taotie statues[4] to chase after them. When Ji Fa learns that the statues are actually after Ziya with the Scroll, he changes clothes with the monk and draws the pursuers away. Trapping the first statue in the forest, he lured the second to Hukou Waterfall, and pierces an arrow through its eye, injuring Gongbao who sends a swarm of crows on Ziya before falling into the Yellow River, riding back to his father and people.

Daji uses her fox spirit powers to resuscitate Shou, while Ziya fishes alone on Wei River and notices Gongbao’s crows behind; Wen Zhong, Grand Preceptor of the Shang dynasty who has been away at war for ten years, returns to the capital along with his generals including the Four Demonic Giants.

Cast

Yu Shi as Ji Fa (姬发) — the second son of Ji Chang and the future leader of the Xizhou, who served as a hostage-son and royal guard of Yin Shou, also the narrator of the story
Fei Xiang as King Yin Shou (殷寿) — the second prince and later King of Shang dynasty
Narana Erdyneeva as Consort Su Daji (苏妲己) — the concubine of Yin Shou, whose body is possessed by a nine-tailed fox
Chen Muchi as Prince Yin Jiao (殷郊) — Yin Shou's only son and crown prince of Shang dynasty
Li Xuejian as Duke Ji Chang (姬昌) — the lord of Xiqi and Duke of the West, and father of Ji Fa
Huang Bo as Jiang Ziya (姜子牙) — a Kunlun monk who is entrusted the Investiture Scroll, later becomes the chief strategist of Xiqi
Xia Yu as Shen Gongbao (申公豹) — a rival monk to Jiang Ziya who came to serve King Shou as a magical strategist
Yuan Quan as Queen Jiang (姜王后) — Yin Shou's wife and queen consort, and Yin Jiao's mother
Wang Luoyong as Bi Gan (比干) — Yin Shou's uncle and the High Priest of Shang dynasty
Yang Le as Bo Yikao (伯邑考) — the eldest son and heir of Ji Chang, and brother to Ji Fa
Cisha as Yang Jian (杨戬) — a nephew-disciple to Jiang Ziya, who specializes in water magics
Wu Yafan as Nezha (哪吒) — a nephew-disciple to Jiang Ziya, who specializes in fire magics
Hou Wenyuan as Chong Yingbiao (崇应彪) — the hostage-son of the Duke of the North, and fellow royal guard and bitter rival to Ji Fa
Huang Xiyan as Jiang Wenhuan (姜文焕) — the hostage-son of the Duke of the East, a fellow royal guard to Ji Fa
Li Yunrui as E Shun (鄂顺) — the hostage-son of the Duke of the West, a fellow royal guard to Ji Fa
Xu Huanshan as King Yi (帝乙) — Yin Shou's estranged royal father
Gao Shuguang as Yin Qi (殷启) — Yin Shou's estranged elder brother and the previous crown prince of Shang dynasty