ISMN: Xiao Qian (1997) - Friday Feb. 10th @ 8 PM
Not Available on NetFlix #23
Happy belated Chinese New Year!!! I meant to show this film a couple weeks ago but things were too crazy with work and the Sundance film festival.
This week’s feature: “Xiao Qian” (1997)
aka: “The Animated Chinese Ghost Story”
DVD/Dubbed/84 Mins/Not Rated
Our favorite tax collector returns in an animated version of the Chinese Ghost Story saga.
I know I still haven’t shown Chinese Ghost Story III yet, but this one starts with an “X” and is perfect for the “no-netflix” alphabet ;)
This film is actually a mutated version of the first CG Story movie, containing many similar story elements but told and experienced in an alternate dimensional plane of existence.
Tsui Hark’s goal to change Chinese cinema forever tackled animation in 1997, and the results are quite enjoyable!
Inspite of the film’s flaws, mainly the obvious one of limited 3D animation that doesn’t always meld with the 2D, or the characters not being grounded etc, the animated version of CGS (Chinese Ghost Story) makes up for it with charm.
The emotional attraction between ghost and human has always been a famous trend in Asian and particularly Chinese story telling. And no one has captured this relationship with quite the same finesse and style as Hark.
The overall experience of this film for myself was like witnessing a mesh between the original CGS and Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away”.
Unlike the live action version, the movie spends a lot more time in the spirit world. Where the debt collector tries to disguise himself as one of the dead to keep from being eaten or taken advantage of by the many diverse ghoul and/or ghost.
I first previewed “Xiao Qian” in it’s original Mandarin with English subtitles, as that is usually my prefference. However, after going back and watching one of the scenes dubbed, I feel that this film would be a lot funnier and make a lot more sense to the American viewer if it were experienced in English. The subtitles are sometimes in broken English and don’t always seem to match the Chinese anyway.
If you love the CGS series, the animated version is a welcomed addition. Several morphs of the original characters are here: The ghost sisters, under servitude of the woman who swallows the souls of men (minus the giant tongue), and the toaist priest (this time with flaming red hair), plus many new faces and characters (sometimes seeming to have been designed in completely different drawing styles).
Overall, it’s a beautiful, nicely paced, unusual and often humorous film that could only have come from the outlandish culture of the Chinese. I love it.
A lengthy and more extensive review can be found over at: Teleport City
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Bonus Short Film:
Fishing With John: Episode 5 - Dennis Hopper pt. 1
In this episode John Lurie and Dennis Hopper visit exotic Thailand in search for giant squid!
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Time: Friday Feb 10th @ 8 PM
Place: “The Springville Mansion”, 363 w 300 s, Springville, UT
Friends, Asian Food and pillows welcome!
See you there!
BC Sterrett
