Once Upon A Time

The movie is like taking the best scenes of the TV shows having the same name. The TV show is much better. This one is so broken. It doesn't have the important parts which it really needs to have, such as why Bai Qian ended on the place where she met Ye Hua? It's like if you haven't watched the TV series version, you wouldn't even get the whole story. The four stars I gave is for video effects, not for story. Finally, I would highly recommend to watch the TV series version first before watching this one. If you watch this one without watching TV series version, you wouldn't understand the whole movie completely.

I watch this movie because my friend who was already read the web story and watched the series. I on the other hand have not heard much of the story except knowing this series or novel is quite popular. I kinda enjoyed the nice cgi and beautiful scenes. As always Chinese fantasy movies usually do produce nice artworks.The costumes were fantastic. Love all the intricacies and beautiful details of each costume. The actor and actress both beautiful and handsome and their on screen chemistry were wonderful. The only thing about this movie is the editing of the story for me is that it's jumping from one scene to another without much explanation. For my friend who already knew the story line , can grasp the whole who, why and what it's happening .But for me it's a bit disjointed, and after she explained to me 'the summary' of the story that i can understand fully what really happened . I would say if the director spend a bit more time of slowly unfolding the story from the beginning i would enjoyed it far more. This movie is like a fan service "summary" of a popular story where the fans already knows the story well to enjoy it more on a big screen with elaborate costumes, stunning cgi and scenery.

It makes me angry to think of every injustice that this movie has suffered since its release in China. I don't know why Chinese audience always screams about how rubbish the Chinese cinematic works are becoming, yet they can treat such a hard-work dedicated piece of art like rubbish??? Well, I guess "you get what you give", Chinese people, if you treat such a good movie like rubbish, then how can you deserve anything better than rubbish?

Now let me express some sincere thoughts about this movie:

1.Plot: The plot is awesome! Not only it is clear, logical, precise and sharp enough to execute an attractive love story, but the ending is also amazing! So creative, so unpredictable, shocking and meaningful at the same time! Sincerely, I have expected a more traditional happy ending or sad ending like Romeo and Juliet, because any average love movie will have an ending like that! But the plot of OUAT has surprised me and won my applause! True artists should be daring and creative like that! Movies are not just to watch, they should also help us to feel, to join in and to think along with the characters!

2.Editing: Well, I think editing is the biggest flaw of the movie. The transition between scenes is so "sudden" and interrupts the emotional flow of the audience.

3.Acting: The cast are beautiful, dedicated to their roles, very good chemistry between all the characters. Although their acting skills are a bit more suitable for dramas and still "weak" in terms of movie acting, but their emotional facial expression are naturally convincing, their voice acting is very good, the action scenes are amazing too.

4.Music: It is a bit disappointing because the BGM is "ok" but does not help to nurture the emotion of the scene. I mean the music is there, but it does not support well the acting efforts of the cast. Meanwhile, the BGM in the trailers and the three theme songs (especially the song by Na Ying) are extremely beautiful and emotional-lifting, but pitifully they are not used in the movie!

5.Special effects: It a 9 out of 10! Perfect! The art concept, the 3D effect, the special effects of wind, water, fur/feather and light.... I really appreciate the great efforts of the Effect crews to complete all of the fancy fairy world scene. Especially, all the special effects are used wisely and appropriately to support the story and bring better emotion for the audience. Meanwhile with other Chinese movies, special effects are mostly "emotionless" and appear just to "show off" the skills of the crews.

Once Upon A Time is definitely like no other Chinese ancient movie before. From the costumes, to the voice line of the characters, to the plot, to the depiction of the fairy world is so different from the popular perception of Chinese audience. But is is beautifully different. You may like or don't like the movie, but it is definitely a piece of art that should be treated with respect and appreciation. It may not be a perfect movie, but it is a movie worth 109 minutes to watch! Actually I'm gonna watch it again several times to capture all of the beauty and ideas hidden in every scene, every line, every details of the plot.

Zhao Xiao Ding, keep on going! Yang Yang, Liu Yifei, keep on going! As long as you give out your whole heart, there will be people who can see it!

I haven't watched the entire movie, but only trailers on Youtube. I was deeply impressed by the story and the effect was fantastic, and I almost cried. Based on the review from my friends who already watched it in China, it is quite good, not only the performance of actors and actresses, but also the effect and music. I know that the novel based on which the movie was made was accused of plagiarism, however I don't think it is the movie's fault because at that time the movie already finished shooting. According to my knowledge, the movie has deleted all the plots relevant to plagiarism and tells a different and better story now. I am OK with people not go to see the movie if they are anti-plagiarism, but it seems quite irresponsible to rate the movie low, since now the movie and the novel are completely different and independent. Actually, you should go to rate the novel which is still on sell. The movie team spent around 3 years on making the movie and it is worth watching. Every effort deserves respect.

My friend told me that when you watch the movie for the first time, you might get a little lost since the rhythm is fast. But if you do the second time you will find yourself completely understand the plots and they are very logical.

Anyway, this is only my opinion. I wish more people can go to see the movie and give more objective reviews. I am looking forward to seeing the movie.

I went to watch the movie twice today, it was really touching. The first time when I was watching, I felt the plots jumped a little fast at the beginning. However, as the story moved on, the emotion went so smoothly that I found myself in tears unconsciously. Then I gave it a second try, and this time the plots seemed much more coherent (probably because I already knew the story?) and I still couldn't control my tears. The love story is classic and euphemistic. The most important, I really like the ending as it completed the story and explained reincarnation---the core of the movie . For me, it is as good as the ending of La La Land.

Finally, big applause for music and visual effect, big applause for the director and all actors and actresses, and all the people that worked together for such a beautiful movie. Once again, it is worth watching.

Finally I got to watch this movie yesterday. I like how Director Xiaoding Zhao and Anthony LaMolinara built a very unique virtual world of ancient Chinese land for this movie. Qingqiu country, where the leading actress lives, is so lively and beautiful. And the war scene towards the end is breathtaking. It's very interesting to understand the two main roles' relationship all through the story, more complicated than I expected. I could always feel Ye Hua's pain and I cried when the mystery got unfolded. Beautiful 3D scenes and beautiful music. Highly recommended.