The Miraculous Mandarin

Production: A Mandarin Film-Eurofilm Studio production, with the support of the Hungarian Culture Ministry, ORTT, Magyar TV. Produced by Ildiko Korody, Peter Miskolczi, Marta Meszaros. Directed, written by Marta Meszaros, based on the work of Menyhert Lengyel.
Crew: Camera (color), Piotr Wojtowicz; editor, Grazyna Gradon; music, Bela Bartok; production designer, Milorad Krstic; costume designer, Krisztina Berzsenyi; choreography, Yvette Bozsik. Reviewed at Hungarian Millennial Filmweek, Budapest, Feb. 4, 2001. Running time: 35 MIN.
With: With: Yvette Bozsik, Zhang Yu Jung, Jan Nowicki, Laszlo Galffy, Ivan Kamaras, Gyozo Szabo, Tamas Vati.

Marta Meszaros has made a vibrant version of the Bela Bartok ballet, "The Miraculous Mandarin," and though this musical film, sans dialogue, runs only a little over half an hour, it will be in demand by festivals and also by quality TV programmers.

Marta Meszaros has made a vibrant version of the Bela Bartok ballet, “The Miraculous Mandarin,” and though this musical film, sans dialogue, runs only a little over half an hour, it will be in demand by festivals and also by quality TV programmers looking for a cultural item which has been given a distinctly modern spin. Lead dancers Zhang Yu Jung and Yvette Bozsik, latter also acting as choreographer, do sterling work.

Opening scenes, beautifully shot by d.p. Piotr Wojtowicz, unfold by the Danube in Budapest. A beautiful woman is accosted by an aging flasher (played by Meszaros regular Jan Nowicki) and is then kidnapped by a trio of thugs who take her to a dungeon where she’s forced into prostitution. A mysterious Chinaman arrives to rescue her, providing the excitingly realized climax. Throughout Meszaros gives the material a modern look, with the tough guys snorting coke and the imprisoned woman filmed by a video camera; however, the soaring Bartok music roots this very modernistic interpretation with a timeless classicism.

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