1
MatildediShabran
1001 Chinese Nights
This drama has to be one of my very favourite dramas ever.
It's like a Chinese version of the Tales of 1001 Nights. It feels like someone is narrating the story to us, but that person isn't seen or heard. It's like a Chinese version of "The Saragossa Manuscript", wherein you always feel like you are peeking at the characters from a distance. This has the cinematography of a 1960's dark Eastern European fairytale wherein you always feel a little bit ill at ease. In fact, this IS a retro Eastern European film, shaped into a Chinese tale, which has many tales woven into it.
Will you be able to tell the ML and SML apart? No, no you will not, at least, not on the first viewing, but that somehow becomes part of the charm of it all. Cecelia Liu is a beautiful treasure of an actress that has been in quite a few remarkable dramas, of which this is definitely one. Everyone seems perfectly cast to me. The stylized shots with the massive headroom dwarfing the characters, with dark eerie curtains always off to the side, gives a sense of conspiracy at every turn. There was maybe too much dialogue from the antagonists and other side characters, which I just skipped through, some random characters that didn't even need to be in the story, quite frankly, but every character, good or bad, was filmed in an eerie glow, highlighted by eerie music. It's a drama that makes you feel like you are in a world ill at ease with itself, which, again, is the 60's-70's Eastern European cinema hallmark.
This dark Eastern European drama in Mandarin, will make you feel weird, as Eastern European fairytales always do, but it's a good weird!
At the same time, all the Chinese drama tropes are present here. The impressive variety of poisons. The big, round antidote "energy ball" pills. The blood spitting, the fainting, the Qi damaging and mending. The evil empress, the fighting for the throne, it's all here to proudly exclaim that you are, indeed, watching a Chinese costume drama.
If you like 60's European art films like The Saragossa Manuscript, except with less sexual innuendos and content, or if you like those retro Czech cinema fairytales, but with better costumes and visual effects, then you will love this drama. I do recall some parts had way too much dialogue (especially when it came to exposition that we could have easily figured out for ourselves), but you can just skip those moments. I think this is a weird and eerie masterpiece that evokes the retro dark cinema of an alternative reality.
Hilarious inconsistancies (very 70's Eastern European low budget!) and things to watch for:
I had a bit of a fast rewatch of some sections.
Firstly, when the FL is magically "tied up" with CGI magic, only to wake up with what is obviously just dry straw around her, which she has to get the ML to help release her from.
The opening song and accompanying graphics are quite bad! The very last note of the song is so hilariously off-key, as well as the music not fitting the tone of the drama whatsoever.
The wigs are giving every single actor an automatic face-lift. They are so pulled back that it is quite ridiculous. Characters would have serious headaches 24 hrs a day if they wore these hairstyles in reality.
Zheng Yi Cheng makes a brief and forgettable cameo as a mystic timelord. I'm sure he only lowered his hood to raise the ratings.
FL is linked to the ML in body, and they faint at the same time, which is a very cute/ funny touch. Then, she proceeds to be knocked out just a little bit later, and he doesn't faint as well, for some reason, but does feel when she pokes a message into her hand.
It's like a Chinese version of the Tales of 1001 Nights. It feels like someone is narrating the story to us, but that person isn't seen or heard. It's like a Chinese version of "The Saragossa Manuscript", wherein you always feel like you are peeking at the characters from a distance. This has the cinematography of a 1960's dark Eastern European fairytale wherein you always feel a little bit ill at ease. In fact, this IS a retro Eastern European film, shaped into a Chinese tale, which has many tales woven into it.
Will you be able to tell the ML and SML apart? No, no you will not, at least, not on the first viewing, but that somehow becomes part of the charm of it all. Cecelia Liu is a beautiful treasure of an actress that has been in quite a few remarkable dramas, of which this is definitely one. Everyone seems perfectly cast to me. The stylized shots with the massive headroom dwarfing the characters, with dark eerie curtains always off to the side, gives a sense of conspiracy at every turn. There was maybe too much dialogue from the antagonists and other side characters, which I just skipped through, some random characters that didn't even need to be in the story, quite frankly, but every character, good or bad, was filmed in an eerie glow, highlighted by eerie music. It's a drama that makes you feel like you are in a world ill at ease with itself, which, again, is the 60's-70's Eastern European cinema hallmark.
This dark Eastern European drama in Mandarin, will make you feel weird, as Eastern European fairytales always do, but it's a good weird!
At the same time, all the Chinese drama tropes are present here. The impressive variety of poisons. The big, round antidote "energy ball" pills. The blood spitting, the fainting, the Qi damaging and mending. The evil empress, the fighting for the throne, it's all here to proudly exclaim that you are, indeed, watching a Chinese costume drama.
If you like 60's European art films like The Saragossa Manuscript, except with less sexual innuendos and content, or if you like those retro Czech cinema fairytales, but with better costumes and visual effects, then you will love this drama. I do recall some parts had way too much dialogue (especially when it came to exposition that we could have easily figured out for ourselves), but you can just skip those moments. I think this is a weird and eerie masterpiece that evokes the retro dark cinema of an alternative reality.
Hilarious inconsistancies (very 70's Eastern European low budget!) and things to watch for:
I had a bit of a fast rewatch of some sections.
Firstly, when the FL is magically "tied up" with CGI magic, only to wake up with what is obviously just dry straw around her, which she has to get the ML to help release her from.
The opening song and accompanying graphics are quite bad! The very last note of the song is so hilariously off-key, as well as the music not fitting the tone of the drama whatsoever.
The wigs are giving every single actor an automatic face-lift. They are so pulled back that it is quite ridiculous. Characters would have serious headaches 24 hrs a day if they wore these hairstyles in reality.
Zheng Yi Cheng makes a brief and forgettable cameo as a mystic timelord. I'm sure he only lowered his hood to raise the ratings.
FL is linked to the ML in body, and they faint at the same time, which is a very cute/ funny touch. Then, she proceeds to be knocked out just a little bit later, and he doesn't faint as well, for some reason, but does feel when she pokes a message into her hand.
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