Willow's Reviews & Thoughts

A few nights ago, (a week maybe), I finally got to watch, from beginning to end, the 2000 mini series - Arabian Nights. I had only ever seen parts here and there, with the end result of being intrigued. As the years have passed, I was further intrigued. I remembered Aladdin's story was Asian. It is not often someone retells it as an Asian (Chinese) tale, it is usually Persian or Turkish or Arabian. Just that alone excited me, when I finally got the dvd in my hands.

But note I did not immediately post full of WHEE. There are some things I dislike about it. Some are quasi minor irritations - like pop culture references. Others are casting decisions and how things played out. I believe the female lead is Israeli born. But many characters were white and from the UK; British, in one case Welsh - and thus all were in 'brown face'. The sets and crew and technicians and costumers were all from Turkey, however.

( Spoilers )

I find myself having to write a review because I'm so.... displeased. But let me start at the beginning. First off, I didn't go see it in theaters. I just wasn't going to spend money on 'Yet another White Boy is the protagonist in a fantasy setting, far less a kung fu fantasy setting'. And having Jackie Chan and Jet Li involved just made it worst that it was a white boy.

So I'm glad that now I've seen it there was mention of the fact in the dialogue that he was a white boy who was walking with his head in a kung fu cloud. But that wasn't enough. I can't be overly grateful for 10 seconds of mention when the whole damn plot is 'And now white boy will become an honorable man - MAGIC CHINESE, just as mysterious as MAGIC NEGRO but with special butt kicking action! Buy one today!'. It didn't have to be a white boy set up in those cliche, shortcut scenarios, but it was.

But the other thing was the shortcuts. I understand the purpose of shortcuts and yet the entire movie was nothing but shortcuts aka cliche scenarios that by their cliche nature give the audience cues that aren't explicitly stated in action or dialogue.

( Here there be spoilers )