I chuckled when Paul talked about Andy Lau and how he starred in Infernal Affairs. Andy Lau is a HUGE star in China and around the world. He never quite penetrated North American recognition the way Jackie Chan or even Tony Leung have, but... yeah. Like those other two, just a seemingly ageless megastar actor and singer (yes, Jackie Chan is also a very popular singer).
I think all three of them are in Drunken Master 2, though Andy's part is more of a cameo. Jackie and Tony are costars of the film Gorgeous, and Andy's costar in Infernal Affairs was Tony. Now I want to watch a bunch of Cantonese movies again. Maybe I'll do that in these self-isolating days leading up to some parental leave. I'll make a list if anyone is interested. I've literally seen hundreds of them starting from the early 90s especially, thanks to an early interest in John Woo* that led to watching any movie that came on the Chinese station from Toronto.
Anyway, I think Jason alluded to the fact that The Great Wall is a Chinese production, but the podcast (understandably, given their location) pretty much just focused on the American actors, especially Matt Damon. Considering the insanely cheap and quickly made quality of older Chinese films, it's wild to see their industry start to take these steps, making more and more self-mythologizing period dramas with hired guns like Damon to shore up the global box office.
I think people also commented on how shitty the CG was. Which is certainly fair. But really, for the most part the Chinese audience doesn't seem to care if the effects are clunky. These are people used to traditional theatre performances and crazy wire work in movies.
Personally, I don't like the CG alien dog things but it's not because of the CG (though it is bad) - it's because I don't like the trend of action movies creating a weird creature that the heroes can literally just mow through and we gross human beings who get bent out of shape if someone is mean to a kitten will look at these alien creatures, judge them solely on their looks, and say yeah, that thing has to die.
*I hate every movie he made in the USA. Yes, even Face/Off.