Chang'an De Li Zhi

Was expecting a magical movie in Chinese classical comedy style about imperial court extravagance, magical mythical Chinese creatures helping achieve the impossible, with clumsy buffonery as typical in classical Chinese ancedotes. Lots of drunken bronze age silliness. (Wuxia genre of movie: The Chinese equalivant to Harry Potter-Game of Thrones and other literature blending reality with magical or chivarious- adventure themes. Ie Lara Croft stories where she's or Indiana Jones is messing around with classical artifacts.) Nope nope none of that.

A Wuxia novel (modern period piece high fantasy Chinese novels), of the same name "Lychee Road", is about a highly intelligent low-level Imperial Aparachik who acquired a significant mortgage to house his young family is manipulated to accept a suicide mission. Transport FRESH Lychee to the Imperial capital of C'hing'an (Xian) in time for the Empress' 18th birthday. 10,000 Li away (2,683.km). The problem? Lychee soon spoils within days. It would take at least 10 days to travel the Lychee Road trade route from Ling'an to Ching'an still a impossible task even for the fast engineering resources of an Empire.

In The Lychee Road, what strikes contemporary office workers the most is Yang Guozhong's casual remark on the tower: "Procedures are rules that the strong don't need to follow!"

Li Shande, as his name implies, is honest and responsible, like an ancient version of an "office worker". Just because of a word from his superior, he took on the arduous task of transporting lychees. He was fully engaged in following procedures, only to face obstacles and be shuffled around everywhere. It took him tremendous efforts to finally deliver the lychees. However, Yang Guozhong, as a "strong man", only needed to stand from a position of superiority and casually hand out a waist token, and all problems would be easily solved. This is the game of power; rules have always existed only for the weak.

The production values are outstanding. The characters' developments feel genuine. The story focuses on real life, not palace machinations. The 'hero' is a naive nerd in Tang times ... priceless. Definitely worth a second or third watch, if only to appreciate the timelesssness of bureaucratic red tape.