Wandering Earth - 流浪地球

 
 At strange turn of event, a chance encounter from the Sembo Brick Model early this month lead me to this Chinese Blockbuster Scifi Movie called Wandering Earth. I never expect Mainland China could produce a rather interesting Sci Fi series with the strict regulation of their government, but this movie proved that there could be exceptions. 

Wandering Earth is a High Budget Scifi Movie starring the Wolf Warrior Actor, Wu Jing as the lead which explore a rather novel idea on Space Explorations theme. In this series, the Humanity decided to undertake perilous journey to migrate to another Planetary system as the Sun of the Solar System is dying. But what sets apart from Wandering Earth with other Space Explorations movie is that the Humanity literally drag the Earth along with them by installing Giant propulsion system all over the earth and sets forth on a long Journey to Jupiter for interplanetary system jump and the Wandering Earth movie explores on the story where a group of humanity raced against time to save the Earth when the something in the plan went horribly wrong which obviously come along with the drama.

 Usually Interplanetary Space Explorations usually feature FTL type technology, but the Premise of Wandering Earth is decent enough should the audience allow the room for the peculiar plot device settle down and narrate what it has to offer. As expected, Wandering Earth is a showcase of Chinese Movie Industry production capability. Because Wandering Earth CGI and Special effects are impressive enough to be no slouch compared to Hollywood AAA movie. Typical moviegoer will barely notice any quality difference between Wandering Earth or something like Pacific Rim.

 But the main essence that I managed to capture from Wandering Earth is that it is a movie with embedded Chinese value through and through especially on the Confucianism take on Self-Sacrifice. Confucianism has a very heavy emphasis on Filial Piety and Wandering Earth try to show why this concept is such a strong feature in this Chinese philosophy. In Wandering Earth the main character's Father and Grandfather selflessly sacrifice themselves for any chance to let the main character lives on and the Soldiers tirelessly obey the directive for the sake of Greater good even if it mean giving up their life. While this sort of concept is rather difficult to digest through for those who didn't grow up with Chinese upbringing, If anyone interested to watch Wandering Earth and want to understand the nuances even further, keep in mind that Wandering Earth is trying to show the Ideal scenario of the Confucian value where Reciprocity is part of the key.

Apparently Wandering Earth had second movie released back in 2023. But from what it appears, this one leans more on being Bayformers instead of pure Sci-Fi in the first movie featuring mecha brawling instead of Humanity put their differences together and try to save the world. Nonetheless the mecha designs are interesting enough for me to get invested straight away and sample on what products they have to offer.