‘League Of Gods’ Releases First Official Trailer Of Epic Movie Starring Jet Li And Fan Bingbing — Features Butt-Kicking Baby You Never Knew You Wanted To See! [Video]

The upcoming epic Chinese movie, League of Gods, just released a phenomenal movie trailer that will surely get martial arts fans to the box office. Not only that, but it features a butt-kicking baby you never knew you wanted to see.

According to an article by Deadline, it reports that the epic Chinese movie is set to release on July 29 through Bona Film Group. League of Gods, which is being advertised as a “Chinese X-Men movie,” is an action-fantasy film directed by Koan Xu. It features an all-star cast in Chinese media including Jet Li as Jiang Ziya, Tony Leung Ka Fai as King Zhou of Shang, Louis Koo as Mahamayuri, Huang Xiaoming as Erlang Shen, Angelababy as The Mermaid, Fan Binbbing as Daji, Wen Zhang as Nezha, and Jacky Heung as Leizhenzi. As for the screenplay, it was written by Cherrykoko and Samson Sun.

League of Gods draws a lot of inspiration from the classic Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi by Xu Zhonglin, as reported by Comic Book Resources. The novel is a romanticized retelling of the overthrow of King Zhou, the last ruler of the Shang dynasty, by Ji Fa, who establishes the Zhou dynasty. It integrates many oral and written tales of Chinese mythology into the struggle too. These includes human heroes, immortals, and various spirits in the form of vixens, pheasants, and inanimate objects like a pipa. As for its integration, one detail includes King Zhou being bewitched by a vixen spirit which causes him to become a tyrant. As a result, numerous heroes arise to take on and overthrow King Zhou to establish peace in the kingdom.

Because the original source material utilizes and incorporates a number of creatures from Chinese mythology, League of Gods heavily uses computer-generated imagery (CGI). In the trailer alone, viewers are shown a giant crab, a giant centipede or millipede-looking creature, hideous monsters, and many other creatures. However, the one CGI character that stands out is Nezha. Taking the form of a baby, Nezha comes off a bit like comedy relief since it is an intense fighter but has to deal with the clumsiness of being a baby. Also, Nezha has a fart attack that split a giant crab into half. How ruthless is that? Nevertheless, we have to thank Tippett Studio for bringing Nezha to life.

Ultimately, the movie does come off more eccentric to past epic Chinese movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or The Forbidden Kingdom. However, it hopes to establish international appeal, which in turn will help open doors for more epic Chinese films of a similar nature to be aired internationally too. Journey to the West (2016 film) will most likely follow-up in an international release if League of Gods is successful.

As mentioned earlier, League of Gods will release on July 29. The release is slated not just for China, but also the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. People who live in Australia and New Zealand are getting early-viewing benefits as League of Gods will release one day earlier. However, the version of the film released in Australia and New Zealand will most likely be edited given the fact those countries have issues with displays of violence.

[Image via China Star Entertainment Group Promotions for League of Gods]