Once Upon a Time movie review (2017)

True to the tale's original book title, their love story is one that spans Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms and manages to make quite a headache when it comes to following the first two concepts. The titular distance of fruit, on the other hand, concerns the pat singularity that fate has just one peach blossom in store for all of us. That's a rare bit of poetry in a movie that explains in part why fireworks, Hallmark cards and acrobats will always captivate people, in one way or another. 

This whole enterprise is filmed, with seemingly few exceptions, on large sound stages. Yes, the sets themselves are filled with floral detail and every bright color on the spectrum, and the green screen work creates backdrops that seem to go on for thousands of miles as softly lit, heavenly landscape (not unlike “The Great Wall,” which director Zhao Xiaoding was the cinematographer for). But the flat nature of this proves to be constricting, creating a deadened spectacle of characters merely walking and talking (and sometimes fighting) around green screens, akin to the famously lifeless blocking in George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels.

Proving that even the most experienced cinematographers can be weak directors, Xiaoding boxes in his grandiose characters with consistent medium shots, making us all the more aware that we’re not seeing a fantasy world come to life, but sets with backdrops and limited walking space. The effect is claustrophobic and frustrating: Before it even starts, “Once Upon a Time” brandishes a whopping ten production logo videos, and yet even with all of that money going into lavish costumes and luminous scenery, it can only present a viewfinder’s perspective of its cinematic universe. “Once Upon a Time” seems prepared for the smallest screens possible, with any screen larger more of a gift to the financiers than the viewer.

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