Watch The Trailer For 'Monster Hunt', The Highest-Grossing Chinese Movie Ever

A movie titled Monster Hunt has just become the highest grossing Chinese movie of all time. The live action/CGI fantasy epic has now grossed $211 million worldwide after just two weeks of release. So what is Monster Hunt? Hit the jump to find out and watch the Monter Hunt trailer.

Monster Hunt Trailer

The trailer for Monster Hunt makes the film look like it could be ridiculously fun. The early English-language reviews haven't been too kind, The Hollywood Reporter calling the film "A would-be epic adventure-fantasy that's epically muddled" and the South China Morning Post called it "a comedy adventure that fluctuates in tone, theme and character design, Monster Hunt is an acquired taste with a mega budget."

The fantasy adventure movie Monster Hunt has become the highest-grossing Chinese movie of all time. The film has earned another $46 million at the Chinese box office this weekend, for an impressive combined worldwide cume of $211 million. This makes it the highest grossing Chinese film of all time, in just the first two weeks of release. The previous record holder was Lost in Thailand, which grossed $185 million back in 2013. The film also broke a number of other box office records, including setting a new opening-day and single-day record for a Chinese local film, grossing $27.5 million to overtake The Monkey King?'?s record. It also became the fastest Chinese movie to to reach the RMB 1.05 billion ($169 million) milestone, accomplishing the financial feat in just 8 days.

If you include Hollywood movies, Monster Hunt now ranks as the fifth highest grossing film of all time in China, surpassing Avatar but behind Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Furious 7.

The film was directed by Shrek animator Raman Hui, who made his feature debut with this movie. Hui co-directed of Shrek the Third, the third installment of the Shrek franchise, and the short film Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five. The $40 million 3D film stars Bai Baihe and Jing Boran, mixing live-action with computer animated monster. Kai Ko was originally cast as the male lead, however he was later replaced by Jing Boran.

Monster Hunt poster

The official plot synopsis for Monster Hunt follows:

In a fantasy world far, far away, monsters ruled the land. Then came human's all-out war in an attempt to seize the land. In its final days, they outwitted the monsters and succeeded in driving them into the dark mountains. Ever since, monsters were forbidden to step into the land again. If they were found, they would be captured and exterminated. For all these years, the two races have lived in their separate worlds, until the birth of a new monster king who would reshape the balance of power and bring in the new world order. Somewhere in the human world lies a small peaceful place called Serenity Village. Average young guy Tianyin (Jing Boran) is a security chief who dreams of making it big but is hold back by his diffidence and his elder grandma. Meanwhile, the monster world writhes in chaos as the dark lord is plotting to overthrow the current reign. In order to end the royal bloodline, he orders the assassination of the pregnant monster queen. This is exciting news to monster hunters! Getting wind of the monster queen's whereabouts, monster hunters from all over the land, including the high-ranked Luo Gan (Jiang Wu) and female rookie Xiaonan (Bai Baihe), are all desperate to get a piece of the action to capture the newborn monster king. Just when Tianyin seems to be stuck in Serenity Village forever, he is accidentally caught up in the middle of a massive pursuit of the pregnant monster queen. Knowing the death is near, the severely wounded monster queen spills her egg into Tianyin's mouth in a hopeless attempt to save her baby. Who would have thought an average guy like Tianyin could be the bearer of the most wanted monster! With both worlds wanting to capture him alive, the fates of both Tianyin and the newborn monster seem to be doomed from the start since he can't protect himself. As luck would have it, Xiaonan appears and saves the day. She offers to protect the "pregnant" Tianyin under the condition that they sell the newborn monster for a good profit. Being hunted by both sides, Tianyin finally gives birth to the future king in the worst possible situation. They name him Wuba since he keeps hollering this word. Although they both love Wuba like their own son, Xiaonan tries to hold back her love in order to focus on her mission. Unable to defy Xiaonan, Tianyin eventually lets her sell Wuba. However, after a change of heart, they determine to save him, only to discover that Wuba is sold to a 5-star restaurant owned by the cunning Ge Qianhu (Wallace Chung). The restaurant is renowned for making monsters into luxurious dishes. Being protected by a band of sinister monster hunters, breaking into Ge Qianhu's place sounds like an impossible mission, let alone saving Wuba. Xiaonan is outnumbered and badly hurt during a battle showdown. Just when all hope seems lost, Tianyin discovers a shocking secret that he descends from a family of monster hunters. All of a sudden his hidden power is unlocked, making him fight side-by-side with Xiaonan. Both the fate of Wuba and the future of the monster empire now lie in their hands. But little do they know, it's only the beginning of their epic adventure!

Monster Hunt was released on July 16th 2015 by Dream Sky Entertainment Co.,Ltd. The film does not yet have a United States release planned.