Review - The Secrets of the I Ching - Video

I was provided a link to review the following documentary. Here is the trailer for the documentary.

More information on the movie can be found here.

Overall it was average.  I found there to be several distracting points in the video.  First my copy has a copyright disclaimer right in the middle of the screen.  I would recommend that if the studio wants to provide first release copies for reviewers they should move the notice to the bottom of the screen instead of right in the middle.  That was a tough one to over come.

The next issue was that at times it seemed like the images didn't match the narrations.  They were speaking about China in Confucius time yet showing the modern images.  It just came off as strange and oddly placed.  That is one example, but the video had several places/times where this occurred.  There were times when I saw modern China and then a flash back to older times.  While the imagery was very good and China is a beautiful place both historically and in modern times, still the imagery and story just didn't come together cohesively.

There were spots in the showing where we had two different narrators.  I found that distracting.  There were also spots where a guest was being interviewed and the translator was translating his words to English, yet the I could still hear the original voice almost over powering the translation.  Again just a little thing that editing should have picked up and corrected.

The biggest issue I had with this, was what the title led me to expect from this and what it actually delivered.  The title is "Secrets of the I Ching".  I expected to see the I Ching explained or more information on the I Ching. What I got was a history of a man who translated the I Ching and ended up creating a school in China and his granddaughters journey to learn more about HIM, not about the I Ching.  Based on the title, and what I saw this documentary just didn't deliver the goods.  A simple title change from "Secrets of the I Ching"  to "My Grandfather and the I Ching" and it would be a much more cohesive story.

Overall an average documentary.  I have seen far worse and I have seen much better.