Today I have the good fortune to encounter this 'gem' of a Chinese periodic drama 美人心计, loosely translated as "mind games of beauties". To understand the meaning behind this title, I would first have to explain the overall genre of Chinese periodic dramas.
Big budget Chinese periodic dramas are generally produced through collaborations between Taiwanese, HK, and Chinese production companies due to the huge budget involved. The themes of these shows fall into 3 general categories: war films (赤壁 - Red Cliff etc), wuxia (英雄- Hero, 卧虎藏龙- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) and palace dramas. Today we are talking about the 3rd category. You see, audiences including myself are very intrigued by the luxurious and elegant backdrop of ancient palaces, contrasted with a bevy of beautiful but psychotic women (concubines/ladies in waiting) vying for power and influence with the king. These women are supremely beautiful, but are also extremely ruthless at removing all obstacles to achieve their goals. So you see, this specific periodic drama is set in the Han dynasty talking about mind games in the back palace.
While this is supposed to be a 40 episode drama serial, I found it absolute torture by the 7th episode, even when I had fast-forwarded through most of episodes 4-7. It was during this show when I realized that Chinese cinema was at such an infantile stage that it has a long way (read: decades) to go before it can catch up with the quality of American cinema. Despite whatever financial capital it may have, it's seriously lacking in cultural capital in terms of producing worthwhile content.
I have to say that Chinese dramas have attained superiority in its set design. Aesthetically they are very pleasing - Costumes, set pieces, props. Amazing stuff. Good periodic Chinese dramas have had the history of having very elaborate sets and costumes that showcases the richness of ancient Chinese culture to great advantage. Additionally, with today's geographically mobile and nationality-diverse actor pool (China, HK, Taiwan, occasionally Korean) for Chinese dramas, there is an abundance of talented actor, it is also true that there are numerous highly talented actors and actresses available.
Unfortunately, producers also have the tendency to cast actors and actresses based on their national popularity in order to ensure audiences from their native markets instead of more practical aspects like their acting ability which could probably add to the watchability of the show. Some of the older, more experienced actors in China can put up fantastic and convincing performances. Unfortunately, it is when they cast idols who can't really act that really ground on my nerves.
A major failing of chinese dramas lies with the lack of a good script. This is a very severe problem afflicting both movies and television dramas. The dialogues and story developments could be so inane that it can be considered an insult on Chinese culture. It is as if the writers were mere secondary school graduates, because the storylines are simplistic, character development that was at best, minimal, at worst, logically incoherent.
This is absolutely one of the worst shows I ever had the misfortune of wasting time on. A nonexistent script, ridiculous plots, inconsistent character developments, a rubbish amalgam of genres - wuxia, drama, politics, war film. Perhaps the most annoying part of the show was the high secondary character turnover. Throughout the entire 40 episodes, there are basically 2 main characters - one guy and one girl. However, most of the time only 1/3 of the time was spent on these two characters. The rest, 2/3 of the time was spent on introducing and killing off/sending away/moving on from characters that last for 2-4 episodes. There is absolutely no way of becoming invested in the drama because most of the people are gone so quickly.
While the 2 main leads do stay on for considerably longer periods of time, their character developments are so inconsistent that it is entirely impossible for the viewer to become emotionally invested in them. It is like Glee style - mercurial changes in characters to suit whatever that takes the scriptwriter/director's fancy.
While this show has been as aesthetically pleasing as any periodic drama ever produced (notice the elaborate set pieces that was used perhaps at most in 1 or 2 scenes in the story), it is almost as if this is a pageant show for beautiful actresses in China due to its high character turnover. Additionally, the script is so badly written that I have a feeling that they spent all the money on visuals and design that they had neglected to allocate some budget to working out a logical script.
Amazingly however, this is a show that had received overwhelming popularity in China, Taiwan and even Korea. It is amazing because so many viewers could so easily be blinded by visual appeals - the beautiful actors/actresses and set pieces, that they ignore the absence of the most basic ingredient of a television drama - a story. Why are there so many ignorant, undiscerning viewers out there? In fact, the continued production of culturally-subpar television programs like these could be blamed on demand produced by these audiences.
Having been immersed in Hollywood media for the past few years, I have no doubt that my palates has been spoiled by the quality of media Hollywood has consistently produced on both the small screen and the silver screen. Media industries around the world seek to emulate the Hollywood success by replicating sure-win formulas like visually appealing actresses and well designed sets, while adding in the occasional spice of sensationalism and violence. The rapidly growing Chinese media industry is of course, no different. Recent media productions have been disappoint attempts of reinterpreting traditional Chinese media with Western influences. Having had witnessed superior showings by Chinese television and HK films in the past, I do sincerely wish for the new geo-cultural 'Chinese' media industry to progress and succeed by finding its own cultural voice and style of media again.
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