Tih Minh Random Notes: Prologue + Episode 1

[scifirenegade]

Caved in. Oops.

• Can already tell it's gonna be one of Those (TM): exoticism and the racism edition.


• I'll say it, the intros that go "Actor So-and-So is Character Such-and-Such" and then there's a little scene of the character are awesome.


• The Grand Vampire actor is Count Merlin of The Charlatan! Not really.


• No idea what Jacques (René Cresté) shtick is, but Placide is very Passepartout.


• Of course, the Vietnamese woman is too primitive and needs good ol' western reeducation! Bah! "It was of its time" my arse, we never left the Dark Ages, our eyes have just grown accustomed to the darkness.


• Placide and Rosette (his fiancé) are wild! Great match, they're ride or die for one another.


• I know it's because they're both played by white actors (and asian women are often stereotyped into being demure and therefore "perfect wife material") but I'm impressed that Jacques and Tih Minh are an item.


• The soundtrack is pretty good, even when it goes all musique concréte (think Delia Derbyshire). Usually it's out-of-place, but not here. Feuillade's serials are wild.


• I wrote "Severe lack of Musidora" and yeah. Where are you, darling, we miss you.


• The whole sequence of Rih Minh being kidnapped + the aftermath were very well shot.


• Dolores (who works for the baddies, a doctor and an Indian guy, because of course 🙄) is a mind reader?? And can compell people to do whatever she wants?? I don't think she's into it tbh


• I also wrote "René Cresté fine as hell". He isn't that much in the ep, and his character at the mo is a nothing-burger, but yes.


• Pretty sure Venenos (Les Vampires) mucked aeound in this lab.


• There was a guy in the beginning called Stone that was found with no memory and no ability to speak and the baddies were using him??


• So Jacques is brooding, and it's all very reminiscent of Jud— what the hell ghostly figures on the beach?? Is this The Seventh Seal??


• Blackmail! Another very well done sequence. That zoom on the date. The acting. And the photo is gone!


• So, Jacques is one of those white guys who go places and take stuff. Granted, what he got was a copy of a book with a note that may be useful if Europe goes to war (WW1 reference), but still. The baddies crave it for their unknown nefarious deeds.


• Placide, no! That's an historical artifact!


• Placide, no! I know Kistna (the evil Indian guy) is evil, but no need to basically call him a slur!


• So, they left Tih Minh at the gate like a stray kitten, and she's acting oddly, because the baddies gave her the blue rose potion of forgetfulness. So she can't even speak. Just like Stone!


• Jacques, no! Don't yell at her!


• It's less of a cliffhanger, and more of a gothic version of a Yevgeni Bauer movie.

So far, pretty standard Feuillade.