The Thousand Faces of Dunjia

The Thousand Faces of Dunjia is a 2017 Chinese fantasy wuxia film directed by Yuen Woo-ping and written and produced by Tsui Hark. It stars Aarif Rahman, Ni Ni, Da Peng and Zhou Dongyu in a tale of a secret society of warriors battling supernatural threats.

Fantasy wuxia on this scale is effectively an animated film with actors inside it. The genre demands designed creatures with believable weight and anatomy, character animation able to keep pace with martial-arts choreography, and fluid, smoke and energy simulation for sorcery that has to land as a physical force. Wire and rig removal becomes constant once performers take to the air; digital doubles, CG environments and matte painting push the sets far past what was built; and compositing balances every layer so the stylised and the photographed share one world. Visual effects and animation on The Thousand Faces of Dunjia were among Terminal FX’s contributions, alongside the rest of the studio’s film, television and commercial work.

The video on this page is Terminal FX’s making-of for The Thousand Faces of Dunjia, published on the studio’s Vimeo channel. It runs just under two minutes and shows the film’s effects shots alongside the work behind them.