Review: Dazzling visuals in fantasy-adventure ‘Once Upon a Time’

Given that the lavish Chinese import “Once Upon a Time” is about as sensible as a “Transformers” movie, it’s best not to attempt to fathom too much of what goes on in this colorful fantasy-adventure and simply take in its lushly shot and designed visuals, eye-popping effects, lively action and often lovely score.

“Once Upon a Time,” not to be confused with the current ABC TV show (apples, meet oranges), is based on the Xianxia novel “Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms” by Tang Qi Gong Zi, which also spawned the 2017 Chinese TV series “Eternal Love.”

The film, co-directed by Zhao Xiaoding, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of “House of Flying Daggers,” and Anthony LaMolinara (an Oscar winner for his visual-effects work on “Spider-Man 2”), involves the star-crossed romance between a 140,000-year-old goddess and monarch (Liu Yifei) and a heavenly prince (Yang Yang) 70,000 years her junior, over the course of several realms and lifetimes--and plenty of physical and metaphysical obstacles.

Despite yards of exposition and many illustrative flashbacks in the script by Li Han, Liu Han, Mai Ling and Zhang Yaliang, this remains a dizzying story, one that starts out a bit silly and broad and morphs into something far more intense and passionate.

“Once Upon a Time”

In Mandarin with English subtitles

No rating

Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Playing: In limited release.