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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr enik1138-at-popapostle-dot-com |
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The O'Connell family takes a trip to China and faces a different kind of mummy.
Read the complete Tomb of the Dragon Emperor movie synopsis at Rickipedia
Didja Notice?
The camera zooms in on the Universal globe logo, to highlight the country of China, where the Dragon Emperor once ruled. We see it divided into seven states (known by historians as the Seven Warring States): Qin, Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, and Wei, which existed approximately 475-221 BC.
According to the director's commentary track on the DVD, the prelude of the film takes place in the 2nd Century BC. From the details of the Emperor's rule, however, I think Mr. Cohen misspoke and meant the 3rd Century BC, as the 200s would have been the 3rd Century, not the 2nd (1-100=1st Century, 101-200=2nd Century, 201-300=3rd Century).
The huge mounds seen in the opening shots of the film are tombs in Ningxia. Ningxia is currently an autonomous region within China. During the time of the film's prelude, 2nd Century BC, it was part of the Qin Dynasty. At the time of the O'Connells' adventure, Ningxia was a province of China.
Actor Jet Li's character is referred to only as "the Emperor" or "the Han Emperor". From the historical details in the film, it would seem the character is based on the first Emperor of China who ruled at this time, Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BC). Qin Shi Huang actually did conquer the Seven Warring States, was the chief instigator of the construction of the Great Wall of China, and had the Terracotta Army guarding his tomb. Jet Li also starred in another movie about Qin Shi Huang, Hero (2002), only he there portrayed an assassin attempting to kill the Emperor.
At 2:10 on the DVD, notice that there is a large dirt model, in the Emperor's chambers, of the hills around the army's target. At 2:26, we get a close-up of the model which also shows his model of the Great Wall, soon to begin construction.
At 2:17 on the DVD, the assassin appears to have a brand burned into his left cheek. During the following war scenes, we see the conquered men being branded by the Emperor's men.
The Great Wall seen under construction here is not quite accurate with the time, as it was largely a mud and wood wall at this point.
A giant astrolabe is seen at 3:25 on the DVD. These were devices used to measure the angle of astronomical bodies in relation to points on the Earth and useful for predicting or pinpointing positions in the sky or on the ground. These were actually in use in China at this time.
At the library in Turpan, Zi Yuan finds some scrolls of wooden slats. The ancient Chinese wrote on strips of wood or bone before paper was invented, with the slats bound into scrolls.
Using a key found in the library, Zi Yuan and Ming Guo discover the Oracle Bones book hidden there. Any book by this name in ancient China appears to be a fictional construct for the movie.
The writing in the Oracle Bones book does not appear to be the traditional Chinese writing known today or even of 3rd Century BC. The logograms seen in the book are presumably a proto-Chinese writing system from centuries before.
Michelle Yeoh (as Zi Yuan) speaks actual Sanskrit as she reads a curse from the Oracle Bones. Director Rob Cohen says in the director's commentary on the DVD that he brought in an actual Sanskrit expert to teach her the proper pronunciation of the words.
The Emperor has General Ming drawn and quartered before his beloved Zi Yuan. Rob Cohen states in the director's commentary that this was a favored technique of execution by Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
The curse Zi Yuan reads from the Oracle Bones book turns the Emperor and his army into the famed Terracotta Army statues. Terracotta is an earthenware, clay-based ceramic most commonly used worldwide for making pottery and bricks. The flame effect seen around the Emperor's body near the end of his transformation is likely the mystical means of firing the soft ceramic into hardness. The real world statues found guarding the tomb of Qin Shi Huang were discovered by farmers digging wells in 1974. Each soldier's face is different from the next; in this movie it is explained as being due to the fact that these were the actual soldiers of the Emperor's army, turned into terracotta.
The opening "current day" text tells us the story takes place in 1946. This is an unknown amount of time after the events of The Rise and Fall of Xango's Ax, since that story never reveals the year in which it took place. The last year that is noted specifically within the O'Connells' adventures is 1938, when Alex was 12, in Flight of the Phoenix. This would make Alex 20 or 21 years old during the events of this film.
Rick is seen trying to relax by fly fishing in Oxfordshire. Oxfordshire is a county in the UK.
The car driven by Rick appears to be a 1930 Bentley.
Notice that at 10:50 on the DVD, Rick waves to the groundskeepers of his estate as he drives in. A nice touch.
At 11:19 on the DVD, Rick is gazing at his old uniform from the French Foreign Legion. Rob Cohen states in the director's commentary that this is the actual Foreign Legion costume worn by actor Brendan Fraser in The Mummy.
Evie is doing a reading of her book The Mummy Returns at Cummins Books on Shelton Street in London. As far as I can tell, Cummins Books is a fictional establishment, but Shelton Street does exist in London.
When Evie is asked if the Scarlet O'Keefe character in her books is based on her, she looks up from the book and we see her face for the first time in the film as she replies, "Honestly, I can say she's a completely different person." This is likely a joking reference to the fact that the actress portraying Evie in this film (Maria Bello) is a different one than the one who portrayed her in the previous two (Rachel Weisz).
Over dinner with Evie, Rick implies that Alex has been kicked out of more than one college.
Professor Wilson remarks that Alex discovered the Bembridge journal that led them to the correct spot to dig for the lost tomb of the Emperor. Presumably, the journal is that of Sir Colin Bembridge, whose body Alex and Wilson later find inside the tomb, from his expedition 70 years before. Evie reads from a scholarly text at one point in The Mummy about a George Bembridge in 1860; possibly George was the father, son or other relative of Sir Colin. Presumably both were associated with the Bembridge School with which Evie has been associated in previous adventures.
At 14:25 on the DVD, one page of the Bembridge journal has a date of Sunday, August 25th. This matches with the year, stated earlier, of 1946. But the previous page of the journal showed Thursday, September 2nd. The closest year before 1946 on which September 2nd landed on a Thursday was 1943. Has Alex really been searching for the Emperor's tomb for that long?
The journal also indicates portions of the Great Wall of China at latitude 40° 25' by longitude 116° 35'. These are accurate coordinates.
At 16:46 on the DVD, notice that a small amount of smoke is seen rising from behind an open case sitting on an end table on the left side of the screen. At 17:01 it is revealed to be Rick's forgotten pipe.
After finding the dry, desiccated body of Sir Colin Bembridge, killed by one of the tomb's traps 70 years earlier, Alex remarks, "...they left him like this as a warning." Who did? We're never told outright, but it seems likely it must have been Lin or her mother Zi Yuan, who were watching over the tomb. It seems that after Sir Colin found the tomb's entrance, it was buried again by someone so it would not be found.
For some reason, after Alex and Wilson and their men have entered the tomb, apertures open in the ceiling, allowing sunlight to enter and illuminate the find.
In the director's commentary, Cohen states that the mercury gas that dissolves one expedition member's face and the auto-firing crossbow bolts are real traps that have been found set in ancient Chinese structures of mystical importance.
Alex and Wilson discover a feng shui compass in the tomb that points the way to the Emperor's mausoleum. Feng shui is a type of Earth magic that can allegedly be utilized to improve one's fortune, using principles of astronomy and geomagnetism. A feng shui compass is one method of detecting changes in the local geomagnetic lines. Some modern day experts even suggest that such a compass was able to detect geomagnetic changes caused by "space weather" (largely changes in the sun's output of solar radiation). As Alex states here, a feng shui compass is intended to point south in normal conditions.
An agent of the British government comes to the O'Connell mansion to offer them a final, important assignment. It is implied that Rick and Evie have been espionage agents for the Foreign Office during WWII, recently retired. The Foreign Office is a British government department that protects the interests of Great Britain in other nations.
Evie points out that the Eye of Shangri-La is said to point the way to the Pool of Eternal Life. The pool appears to be a fictional metaphysical construct for the story. General Yang later reveals that the Eye contains an elixir of eternal life from the waters of the Pool of Eternal Life and he uses it to resurrect the Emperor.
When Rick and Evie arrive in Shanghai, it is said to be Chinese New Year, 1947. This doesn't really make sense since the England scenes are said to take place in 1946. The date of Chinese New Year varies from year to year, but occurs on a date from January 21 to February 20 on the western Gregorian calendar. In 1946, this was on February 2, 1946. In 1947 it was January 22, 1947. In either case, it would already have to be 1947 on the Gregorian calendar for it to become so on the Chinese calendar. It seems likely the actual year of the story is still 1946 and the 1947 notation is in error.
Notice that Jonathan's Shanghai nightclub is called Imhoteps,
obviously in recognition of his past adventures with the O'Connells
against the Egyptian mummy Imhotep in
The Mummy and
The
Mummy Returns.
According to the director's commentary on the DVD, the old woman Jonathan is speaking with at the bar at 27:02, is Rob Cohen's first agent. Notice that Jonathan raises a toast to her, saying, "Here's to you, Princess. And Imhotep. May the bugger actually stay dead."
At the club, Jonathan points out that Alex has dropped out of school to pursue his dig and his parents won't be happy when they find out.
Rick bumps into an old comrade of his from the French Foreign Legion in 1923, Mad Dog Maguire, a pilot who later flies the group into Tibet. Maguire refers to Rick as "Ricochet", apparently a nickname he had in the FFL. 1923 was the year in which the FFL attempted to hold the buried city of Hamunaptra in Egypt against the Medjai led by Ardeth Bay who drove them out to prevent the resurrection of Imhotep in the early scenes of The Mummy. It's therefore possible that Mad Dog was one of the members of Rick's FFL garrison at the time.
Rick remarks to Evie that Mad Dog could land a plane on anything. This foreshadows Mad Dog's landing on a snowy mountainside in the Himalayas later in the film.
After the brief brawl between Alex and Mad Dog in the club, notice that you can hear in the background Jonathan asking, "Who's going to pay for all this damage?" He seems to be speaking to Rick, so it seems likely the O'Connell family fortune will provide the restitution.
The neon billboard at 30:05 on the DVD appears to be for Tsingtao Beer, a Chinese beer brand since 1904.
The rooftop on which Rick and Evie are having their argument about Alex is presumably the roof of Imhoteps. The entablature on the roof suggests the building was erected in 1905.
General Yang announces to his troops his desire to resurrect the Han Emperor, whom he believes can bring order "out of this chaos". The chaos he refers to is probably the Chinese Civil War. This war began in 1927 between the Chinese Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party for control of the country. The war had been suspended, with the sides working uneasily together, to fight the encroaching Japanese during WWII (known in China at the time as the Second Sino-Japanese War), but when that war ended in 1945, hostilities between the two political parties almost immediately resumed. At the time of this story, the Chinese Nationalist Party was still in control of China's government.
Jonathan drives Rick, Evie, and Alex through Shanghai in a Rolls-Royce. I've not been able to narrow down the model being driven.
Alex's exhibit on the excavation of the Emperor and the Terracotta Army is at the Shanghai Museum. In the real world, the Shanghai Museum was not opened until 1952. And, of course, the Terracotta Army was not discovered until 1974 and is on exhibit at the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an in Shaanxi province.
In the director's commentary on the DVD, Rob Cohen points out that
(at 33:38) Rick is leaning against the hindquarters of one of the
terracotta horses as he tries to compliment Alex's work. It is meant
to reinforce that he is being kind of "a horse's ass".
Because the Chinese general's name is Yang, Rick sarcastically refers to the general's companion, Colonel Choi, as Ying. "Ying" is another form of the word "yin" from the Asian philosophical concept of yin and yang, the connectedness of polar opposites.
During the battle in the Shanghai Museum, crates are seen labeled
"Wilson Exhibition", implying it was Professor Wilson's credentials
that gave what was largely Alex's dig credibility.
At 42:45 on the DVD, Rick stops and commandeers a delivery truck in order to chase the chariot of the Emperor. The truck has the logo of Tse Kar Wai Fireworks on the doors and on the crates it is hauling. Tsekar Wai is a pseudonym of Chinese film producer Doris Tse, one of the co-producers on the film.
At 42:53 on the DVD, notice that Rick pays the evicted driver for the use of the commandeered truck by throwing a wad of money towards him.
As he is hauled on board the speeding truck by Rick, Jonathan remarks, "You guys are like mummy magnets!"
After pulling a gigantic dragon designed firework from one of the crates on the truck at 43:47 on the DVD, Rick remarks, "Size counts."
At 44:11 on the DVD, a sign for Sun Sun Co. Ltd. is seen on a Shanghai storefront. Sun Sun was a department store in Shanghai in the 1920s-40s.
During the chase scene, Rick shouts his son's name as Alexander Rupert O'Connell, revealing his middle name.
As he is losing control of his terracotta horse at 46:06 on the DVD, it sounds like Rick says, "Fuck!" Listen: "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Fuck! Whoa!"
At 47:32 on the DVD, the chase crashes through an outdoor performance of a Beijing opera. Beijing opera is a traditional type of Chinese theater. In the director's commentary on the DVD, Rob Cohen says it is a performance of The Monkey King. The Monkey King is a character from the 16th Century epic Chinese novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en, which has since been adapted in many other forms.
At 48:29 on the DVD, we see the Wang Yue Tai Tea Company across the street from Imhoteps. This is a real world tea company founded in Shanghai in 1837.
Visible behind the bar at Imhoteps are bottles of Gordon's Gin, Old Taylor Bourbon, Old Overholt Rye Whiskey, Glenlivet Scotch, and an unidentified brand of tequila beginning with "Meam". The first four are all real world brands of liquor.
Alex tells his father that after Lin tried to help them stop the Emperor, he's "willing to go on a little faith" with her. Rick had the same line in The Mummy regarding Dr. Bey.
Lin explains that the Emperor will try to reach Shangri-La through a gateway in the Himalayan Mountains in order to reach the Pool of Eternal Life. The Himalayan Mountains lie in Asia and host the world's highest peaks.
The airplane flown by Mad Dog appears to be a custom modified passenger version of a Bristol Beaufighter, built by the British Bristol Aeroplane Company and used extensively throughout WWII.
A yak is brought aboard Mad Dog's plane to haul the group's supplies during the overland stretch of their journey through the Himalayas.
As he cooks a meal for himself at 53:54 on the DVD, Mad Dog Maguire is singing an Irish folk song called "Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down".
Jonathan names the yak Geraldine. Is there any significance to the name? An ex-girlfriend? When the group reaches the gateway, she is unable to cross the rope bridge and Jonathan sets her free in the mountains.
After reaching the gateway, Alex is seen wearing aviators style sunglasses. In an early draft of the script it was stated that Alex had lied about his age in order to join the U.S. Air Force in 1941 (though at that time it would have been the U.S. Army Air Corps or U.S. Army Air Force). The sunglasses may be a remnant of that early draft, or a nod to Alex's unacknowledged past.
Rick and his son share a love of guns. Alex shows him a Walther P38 and Russian PPS Personal Assault Weapon. Rick states that the Walther is pretty anemic compared to the Peacekeeper, pulling out his own pistol; actually, the more common nickname for the Colt 45 is Peacemaker. Rick also shows off a Thompson submachine gun. These are all real guns.
At 59:28 on the DVD, the group is seen to have a crate labeled Voeten dynamite. This is most likely a reference to the film's first assistant director P.J. Voeten.
Arguing about his qualifications to take down the Emperor with Alex, Rick admits he's only put down one mummy, twice. This may or may not be accurate, depending on how one looks at it. He may have also put down a mummy in the unfinished comic book mini-series Valley of the Gods, and he assisted, though did not actually perform the taking down of, Xango in "The Rise and Fall of Xango's Ax" Part 4.
While Evie places dynamite at the top of the gateway as part of the plan to take down the Emperor, Lin asks if she's sure she knows what she's doing and Evie responds she's done this a hundred times. Although "a hundred" is probably an exaggeration, this may be a reference to her time as an espionage agent for the British Foreign Office.
A number of what appear to be Buddha statues are seen in the gateway enclosure.
Lin calls a group of Yeti to the group's defense. The Yeti is a cryptozoological, ape-like creature said to inhabit the Himalayan Mountains. It has often been referred to in the west as the Abominable Snowman, as Rick attests incredulously. The Yeti is somewhat analogous to the Sasquatch (or Bigfoot) of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. (In the director's commentary, Rob Cohen says that the Yetis seen here were designed as a cross between a polar bear and a Tibetan Snow Leopard.)
The Yeti who roars into the camera at 1:04:30 on the DVD has the tip broken off one of his fangs.
When "Broken Fang" kicks one of the Chinese soldiers over the entrance arch of the gateway, the beast and his friend behind him seem to celebrate as if they've kicked a field goal in American football! (Watch the scene from 1:04:31-1:04:39.)
At 1:06:30 on the DVD, the sticks of dynamite appear to be labeled with "Corps of engineers U.S. Army". I presume this is a reference to what is usually known as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency dedicated mainly to public engineering works.
Notice that at 1:09:42 on the DVD, the Eye of Shangri-La diamond is propelled by the avalanche straight into the camera...and cracks the lens! Obviously an intentional (and CGI) shot, just for fun. (And notice at 1:10:12, that Jonathan has it clutched in his hand as the Yeti pulls him out of the snow; he's even shouting, "Yes! I got it!")
Seeing Rick all but return from the dead at the ministrations of Zi Yuan, Jonathan remarks to himself, "Give me my four score years and ten any day." This may be a reference to the 1933 autobiography of British General Sir Bindon Blood, Four Score Years and Ten. A score is 20 years, so four score years and ten is 90 years. Sir Bindon Blood published his autobiography when he was 90 years old.
Zi Yuan and Lin seem to live in the cave of the Pool of Eternal Life, overlooking Shangri-La. We get a beautiful view of the utopian city, but never see any of its inhabitants. Are there people there? Might the O'Connells encounter them in the future?
In the director's commentary, Rob Cohen says the three-headed dragon the Emperor turns into is called a pizhou in China. I've not been able to find corroboration on this term (and I've probably misspelled it!). Presumably, the other creatures into which the Emperor transforms himself throughout the climax are also from Chinese lore, but I've been unable to identify them; the one that Rick battles in the tomb may be a griffin.
After the two undead armies have been raised, it's interesting to note that despite having been drawn and quartered in the prologue of the film, General Ming's corpse is mostly whole here, missing only his left arm.
After falling on the Emperor's sword, Zi Yuan pulls the enchanted dagger from his belt with her left hand as he pushes her away, over a cliff.
Before sending the head of a ground-crawling terracotta mummy flying with the butt of his rifle, Rick shouts, "Fore!" (A term borrowed from the sport of golf.)
Notice that the Emperor appears to walk a course through the spinning gears and mechanisms of the giant astrolabe seen in the prologue. Then, as he conjures the spell that is meant to entomb General Ming and his army again, he summons five swirling orbs. It's hard to say for sure, but it appears that the five orbs are actually representations of Wu Xing, the Five Agents of phenomena in Taoism. Here the Five Agents are representations of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. (The great red spot on Jupiter is even visible if you freeze frame the swirling, spinning globes.)
At 1:37:48 on the DVD, Alex has left a division symbol (÷) written in the dirt next to the broken dagger. This refers back to Rick's "plan" on the battlefield outside the tomb to "divide and conquer". The sand writing may also be intended as a callback to 12-year-old Alex leaving clues in the sand for his parents in The Mummy Returns.
The song being sung by the siren at Imhoteps at the end of the film is "My Sweet Eternal Love", lyrics by Rob Cohen and sung by Helen Feng.
Notice that Mad Dog Maguire is wearing a sequined suit similar to the one Jonathan was wearing as the proprietor of Imhoteps near the start of the film. The implication is that Maguire is the new owner of the club. Remember that during the airplane strafing/bombing run against the Emperor's forces, Maguire reminded Jonathan that he owes him free drinks at the club and Jonathan remarks that he can have the whole bar because he's getting the Hell out of China.
As Jonathan's taxi pulls away from Imhoteps to take him to the airport for Peru, the business across the street is seen to bear the sign Tai Cheong Company. This is a company based out of Hong Kong that sells numerous products. But the business was not established until 1966!
Notes from the Audio Commentary by director Rob Cohen on the DVD
Cohen says the Oracle Bones book seen in the film is based on a find during the 20th Century. I assume he is speaking of the 1899 (which is actually the 19th Century) discovery, by a Chinese government bureaucrat, that an ancient medicinal product referred to as "dragon bone" by practitioners was actually pieces of tortoise shell with writing on them. Seeking out as many of them from medicinal shops as possible, tens of thousands of pieces were collected and translated as being records of divination from ancient times. (There has been no discovery of an actual book, however.)
The interior of the O'Connell mansion was shot at the St. Steven Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Cohen says the production made exact replicas of the real Terracotta Warriors.
Brendan Fraser was trained in the Israeli fighting art of Krav Maga, from the old Israeli Defense Force combat system, for his fight scenes with Jet Li. This is an actual martial art taught to IDF agents, developed by Imi Lichtenfeld in the 1930s.
Cohen says the back-story of Alex's semi-estrangement from his parents includes his having been sent to boarding school in Australia while his parents were busy acting as agents of the British Foreign Office.
Cohen states that if another sequel were made, he has plans to reveal additional powers of the Eye of Shangri-La.
Memorable Dialog
shall I fetch the wire cutters?.wav a completely different person.wav a hobby that doesn't involve guns.wav that's a tomb in which many pharaohs have lain.wav I've seen enough mummies to last a lifetime.wav do the words "rest in peace" mean anything to you two?.wav I just pillage tombs in the name of preservation.wav I love a woman who can drive a truck.wav I've got a little more experience with mummies.wav I know just the Mad Dog for the job.wav you shouldn't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to.wav why do I always have to save the day?.wav one for all and all for me.wav I could use a diamond like that.wav there is no call for bad language.wav Dash and Scarlet have their next adventure.wav there's something incredibly romantic about vanquishing the undead.wav you don't have to ask me twice.wav
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