I've read the book, and I have seen the Chinese version of this.
The new Westernized version, except for the effects, moves way too fast, is poorly done and purposefully seems like a China-bashing effort.
The story opens with an exaggerated scenario of the abuses of Mao's cultural revolution, which was very bravely and admirably in the Chinese version of this story, but here is overly graphic and dramatic, and ugly - and without context - read unfair and non informative or enlightening to us Western viewers
This production takes a globally popular Chinese SF masterpiece and transposes it to England, in modern hipster lingo, and tries to move too fast that it skids and goes off the road. The visuals are good, but the screenplay is very poorly adapted.
Having just recently watched the Chinese version of this - it is so much more human, interesting and engaging - though the Chinese version is a pretty long slog - something like 30 episodes and it drags in many places and the effects are not as flashy - but I think it is much, much better done.
TBP ... well, I am interested in what people who have not read the book or been primed as to the story of plot are making of this because to me, who is family with most of it - it is going much too fast to establish characters or make us interested or care about them.
It also suffers from the same thing the Chinese version did - the many Chinese Asian characters faces were not chosen to be distinctive enough for Western eyes so it is a bit confusing and harder to follow, but not impossible.
The scenes at the labor camp zoomed by in minutes and had none of the deep impact of personal and societal betrayal and gravitas that the Chinese version did - and I would think this had to be a big deal in China for this movie to slam Mao's cultural revolution as it did. We get a accelerated vision of this that is kind of insulting to the import to China this must have been.
As China seems to open up to be more self-critical, the US is shrinking away from its history - as a general statement of my perceptions as an average older white American. It is sad to see.
The criticisms I am making are systemic and are going to be throughout the series, so I felt OK to write about this in a review even though only seeing a little over two episodes.
With all the effort that must have gone into this, it should have been better.
The new Westernized version, except for the effects, moves way too fast, is poorly done and purposefully seems like a China-bashing effort.
The story opens with an exaggerated scenario of the abuses of Mao's cultural revolution, which was very bravely and admirably in the Chinese version of this story, but here is overly graphic and dramatic, and ugly - and without context - read unfair and non informative or enlightening to us Western viewers
This production takes a globally popular Chinese SF masterpiece and transposes it to England, in modern hipster lingo, and tries to move too fast that it skids and goes off the road. The visuals are good, but the screenplay is very poorly adapted.
Having just recently watched the Chinese version of this - it is so much more human, interesting and engaging - though the Chinese version is a pretty long slog - something like 30 episodes and it drags in many places and the effects are not as flashy - but I think it is much, much better done.
TBP ... well, I am interested in what people who have not read the book or been primed as to the story of plot are making of this because to me, who is family with most of it - it is going much too fast to establish characters or make us interested or care about them.
It also suffers from the same thing the Chinese version did - the many Chinese Asian characters faces were not chosen to be distinctive enough for Western eyes so it is a bit confusing and harder to follow, but not impossible.
The scenes at the labor camp zoomed by in minutes and had none of the deep impact of personal and societal betrayal and gravitas that the Chinese version did - and I would think this had to be a big deal in China for this movie to slam Mao's cultural revolution as it did. We get a accelerated vision of this that is kind of insulting to the import to China this must have been.
As China seems to open up to be more self-critical, the US is shrinking away from its history - as a general statement of my perceptions as an average older white American. It is sad to see.
The criticisms I am making are systemic and are going to be throughout the series, so I felt OK to write about this in a review even though only seeing a little over two episodes.
With all the effort that must have gone into this, it should have been better.