Xiao Qian

You do have to admire Tsui Hark for even daring to attempt creating an animated reinterpretation of one of Hong Kong cinema's most beloved supernatural romances. Rather than trying to outdo the iconic 1987 live-action film, this fascinating, if often overlooked, animated version reimagines the story through stylised visuals and heightened emotional clarity. It's as frenetic as any Tsui Hark production, with the animation embracing a storybook aesthetic; it's visually enthralling with lots of fluid character movement, expressive faces and backgrounds that feel pulled from classical Chinese ink paintings. Forests drift in mist, spirits glide rather than walk and the supernatural elements feel ethereal instead ... of frightening. While the animation occasionally shows the limitations of its era with some uneven motion and a glaring disparity between the computer and cel animation, it compensates with atmosphere and mood. The world feels dreamlike, perfectly suited to a tale about love that exists between life and death. The film does stay remarkably faithful to the core of the legend, with the animated format allowing the story to streamline its emotional beats, if slightly less playful than in the live-action version. Ultimately, standing as a complementary companion to its live-action predecessor rather than a replacement, this animated Chinese Ghost Story trades iconic performances and kinetic action for visual poetry and emotional restraint. It's not perfect by any means, with its thin attempt at making the legend more child-friendly falling short, but it's a considerable accomplishment and just so irresistibly charming that, for any fan of the original, it's worth watching.

Before watching this movie, I made some research on it and "don't expect to understand this one" seemed to be the key phrase. Still, the synopsis was interesting enough and so I watched it anyway (I'm a sucker for Chinese folklore), although just expecting eye candy. In the end, I liked it! Though I warn you in advance: if you are not familiar with Chinese folklore (specially the tale of Xiao Qian and the tax collector Ning), you will find some of the concepts awkward, at best. Like, for example, the idea of ghost busting: if you are not familiar with the myths of supernatural ... powers possessed by Taoist masters, you will most likely laugh at it while recalling a certain American movie that has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Story/World:
Although it's not mandatory to know Chinese folklore in order to watch (and enjoy) the movie, you will miss out on a great deal if you don't keep up with all the Chinese mythological references (which the movie expects you to know, since it doesn't explain any of them). That said, the story is very singular, although odd and many times incomprehensible.
We follow Ning, a debt collector, and his dog Solid Gold. They're wandering around (seemingly aimlessly) and end up in a ghost town. It's a story of a human falling in love with an enchanting ghost, followed by bizarre giant monsters, with some generic warriors helping along the way. And don't forget all the Chinese mythology references too (eye candy).
Basically, don't watch this for the story if you have a short attention span. Although the creative storyline isn't necessarily directed to adults, it demands the comprehension of those at least 10 and up.

Art/Animation:
The art is nice. The character designs are Disney-ish in an unique way.
Animation-wise, watching it now, don't expect something grand. The animation is quite good for its time (for the characters and its motions, I mean) but it's outdated (this movie is over 10 years old). That being said, lets also not forget that this is Chinese animation so, obviously, the style is also different. Animation excels in character motions, specially in action scenes, which are greatly done, using very creative camera angles and charming colors. Down side would be the the CG used, which is on the very low quality side. In fact, the use of both 2D and 3D don't go very well together: the 2D is great, the 3D fails.

Character:
Character designs are unique to the individuals. A lot of the personality can be deduced from how the characters look like. Of course, most of them are pretty linear, like the "I trust everyone" Ning (you wouldn't expect that kind of personality on a debt collector xD), the "worship me" Evil Mountain, the "I'm awesome" Ten Miles, the "I'm god" White Cloud or the "too good for you" Shine. However, although there is nothing utterly wrong, nothing really stands out in this department.

Sound:
Sound, sadly, is its biggest failing. The film was originally designed specifically around doing both Cantonese and Mandarin so you'd expect some failure there but, oddly enough, that's not where the failures appear. Actually, both audio languages are quite nice: the Cantonese brings less harsh character voices, since the dialogue sounds more like singing than talking, while the Mandarin is far more serious, with the extra work gone into drama. No, the problem is not the audio language.
We then have a few Disney-ish musical moments throughout the movie, although they sound lovely in both audio tracks. No, the problem is also not in the songs.
Unfortunately, it's the effects that fail the whole sound experience. They are mediocre and banal, at best. I even recognized sounds from a game, as well as numerous other films.
Although the dramatic aspects are well held, very often the sound intrudes on a well animated tense moment, ruining the whole experience.
The English dub is another fail, although not as prominent, because I recognize that it's somewhat hard to translate Chinese into English without it reading rather strange (cultural relativism). Nevertheless, the dialog is incredibly cheesy and, on many occasions, fails to deliver the original meaning of the story. I don't recommend it. The Mandarin and Cantonese tracks are both quite good and, although you are probably used to the clearer Japanese language, Chinese is very melodic so give it a try.

Enjoyment:
I liked the story and there were a few hilarious moments and awesome action scenes, but that was it. You can tell the movie is very ambitious and wildly imaginative. The love story portrayed is universal enough to be understood by anyone. So, if you can overlook the pathetic CG and the miserable sound effects, this movie will be something worth your time, otherwise, you watch it for the myth references only.

Overall:
Sadly, it fails to stand out thanks to several factors already stated and though it is re-watchable once or twice (to hear both audio tracks), that is about all.

Xiao Qian was released in the late 90s from the studio Triangle Staff. That's right, one of the studios behind Uchuu Kaizoku Mito and the studio we have to thank for Serial Experiments Lain. It's based off of the short story Nie Xiaoqian. So, let's see how it holds up as a film. 

Story:

We follow a young debt collector, Ning as he takes a journey to forget his former beloved Lan Siu who left him on account of his ignoring her in favour of earning money. Dude, we get it you need money but a successful relationship is built on communication. You can't just ignore your ... partner. In any case, he encounters a pair of ghost busting monks who purify some evil spirits in front of him. While he runs and  waves his arms about like a right useless bastard. After the excitement, he continues on his journey only to find himself in  city filled with spirits and uncertain how to survive. 

Let's dig right into the primary issue that plagues this film. The pacing. And this isn't like yesterday's subject either where the pacing could have been better but wasn't that bad. In this it's an absolute mess. Once the film's gotten going we can't get a couple minutes between one long action sequence involving a lot of shouting and the next. Its like Ning's whole shtick is getting carried into absurd situations where he's completely useless. He's like Yamcha. There's also the big romance plot. Which is complete tripe. Our leads have no chemistry, seemingly nothing whatsoever in common and no apparent reason behind one being attracted to the other. He basically looks at her and thinks "wow, she's pretty." then she sees him and thinks "I'm going to steal his life force" but then changes her mind and falls for him for no apparent reason. Which is a general problem with the film. A lot of the "motivations" are nonsense. The ending is pretty shit too. 

Characters:

In addition to the motivation problem, one of the big character issues has to do with consistency. I touched on that with the romance, but it goes deeper than that. There are characters who will quite literally switch their positions in five minutes without any compelling reason to do so. But the worst element of the characters has to be Ning. Not only is he pretty damn annoying, but he's a completely useless character. This isn't like Spirited Away where an everyday protagonist goes to a world of spirits and does well for themselves. This dude is completely out of his depth the entire time. And that type of character only really works in a comedy and even then you don't want them as the lead. 

Art:

The art is a bit more mixed than the other elements. On the positive side, some of the supernatural designs look pretty good and the film does do a good job with making the city of spirits look pretty vibrant and unique. On the negative side, the animation is very clumsy and the designs for the more ordinary parts of the world are crap. There's also the issue with the CG elements not meshing well with the more traditional animation. 

Sound:

The acting is, at best, barely passable. Maybe it's just that the script involves a lot of frantic shouting and it's really grating. Maybe it's that the actors, as a whole, sound like they don't give a shit but the consequence is that the performances just aren't very good. The music is okay. 

Ho-yay:

There is none. Which suits me fine because, judging by what they do with the romance they do have, it wouldn't have been good. 

Final Thoughts:

Xiao Qian is pretty bad. It's riddled with story problems, characterisation is weak and inconsistent, it doesn't look or sound good. I'm going to give it a 3/10. Tomorrow  I'll end the week with a look at Aki no Kanade.