Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjuror

Another one of French wizard Georges Melies countless number of early twentieth-century films, this one resembles many other films of the time in being a reproduction of a stage act. Melies plays a Chinese conjurer who performs various feats of magic on-stage. The trouble with this film is that it uses trick photography to perform the tricks which, when you think about it, pretty much defeats the object. It's not a magic trick when it's performed by camera trickery - it's a camera trick. Still, this kind of thing seemed to please audiences back then so I suppose it's churlish to complain. Ten lines - that equates to two-and-a-half lines for each minute of film...

Dressed in Chinese costume and make-up, Georges Méliès is almost unrecognisable, though he does bring to this film that passionate enthusiasm that is evident in every single one of his works. Having worked as a stage magician prior to acquiring an interest in cinema, the director and performer is certainly in his element here, making lamp shades turn into dogs, dogs turn into women, and then a woman into a flock of chickens. He employs many of his usual camera tricks – substitutions, cross dissolves – and most of them are relatively seamless.

However, in this case, Méliès' usual clever camera-work serves somehow to lessen the films impact, rather than enhance it. This film basically being a staged magic act, it is somewhat disheartening to already know that most of "magic tricks" were achieved simply through camera tricks, rather than the elaborate, creative stunts of deception that would ordinarily be demanded of a traditional stage magician. What worked in countless other Méliès shorts simply didn't work here. This has nothing to do with the quality of the actual work, but merely with the context in which it is used.

Having said that, however, there is absolutely no reason why somebody should not watch 'Tchin-Chao: The Chinese Conjurer' for a few minutes of light entertainment. Some of the tricks are quite fun and imaginative, and it certainly looks like, as always, Méliès himself is having a grand time!

It's the usual disappearing female who leaves one location and comes back in another. The characters pretend to be Chinese which is different, I guess. The tricks are less than astounding and it's really obvious that someone came in and rearranged things before the shoot. There is no real plot and no Wow moment.

I watched this as one of the shorts on The magic of Melies video cassette released by Kino on Video, 1994. Image quality was good. Music matched the mood of the film. No color was added. Cropping did not appear to interfere with the film. Frame speed appeared to be to fast. This should give an idea of the technical quality of the release I watched.

This film consists mainly of special effects being used to create a magic show. The chinese magician dances across the screen with a parasol. As his swings his parasol past places on the screen various items appear. A dog appears and becomes a woman. A chinaman is conjured to pair with her. They dance and fade from one part of the screen to another. The effect is dizzying, but I think this may have been partly because frame speed was too fast an the copy I watched.

I recommend this film to people interested in very early film history. For general viewers it is amusing, and not long enough to be tedious, but not that interesting either.

Tchin-Chao, The Chinese Conjurer (1904)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka Le Thaumaturge chinois

This time out director Melies plays a Chinaman magician who does a stageshow, which includes putting a woman in a box and a similar box next to her and making the woman appear in the opposite box. You can sometimes tell how these tricks were done, through editing, but the special effects here were very good and I honestly didn't see how the trick was pulled off. The final gag is a funny one but overall this didn't contain enough magic to where I'd call it one of Melies' best films.