REVIEW: LUMINA

What’s Reflected Isn’t Always What it Seems

Year: 2009 Episodes: 9 Runtime: approximately 60 mins

Director: Jennifer Thym

Writer: Jennifer Thym

Starring: JuJu Chan, Michael Chan, Vince Matthew Chung

What You Expect: A romantic sci fi story.

What You Need to Know (from the filmmaker):

“Lumina Wong is beautiful and works far too much; although she lives in a city of millions, she still feels lonely and isolated. Late one night, Lumina has a chance encounter with Ryder Lee, a handsome young man from another world that she can only see in mirrors and darkened window reflections. She revels in the fantasy relationship until mirrorspy Eben Sanchez comes into her life, warning her of the treacheries of the people of the Dark Realm. Soon Lumina must choose between the safety of the world she knows and the deadly allure of the unknown.”

What [Lumina] Delivers: 3 Star Light Star Brights (out of five) ‘cos I Really Want to See this Do Well.

A friend of mine taught me that you need to give a new sci fi series at least one season before you give up on it. Sci fi often needs the first season to get it’s legs, and LUMINA is one of those. It’s billed as a fairy tale, but the same rule applies.

To get the down and dirty out of the way, so as to focus on what’s works, I have to say that right out of the jump the story’s pacing is off. Without the synopsis above, we don’t really get to know what kind of person Lumina (JuJu Chan) is, and her meeting with Ryder (Michael Chan) is immediate, and forced, instead of chance, or fate.

The story’s pacing is compounded by the often stilted acting. Most of the actors are speaking lines, not becoming the characters. This breaks the flow of the story, which, at first, isn’t flowing very well. It’s a confusing what’s going on, but what we do know is that there’s at least two worlds, the one we live in and another, a dark world, that most can’t see, that lies beyond mirrors (or any reflective surface). There are people who can go back and forth, or who can communicate between the two, some called mirrorspies, and at the center of it all is a mysterious man named Ryder, who has fallen for Lumina.

Yet, like an old laser printer, once the show warms up, around episode 6 or 7, it really starts delivering the goods. After we learn the truth about Ryder, that he’s a thief and has stolen a powerful mystic mirror which can transport people over, and the people after him are not what they seem, the driving force and metaphor for the story kicks in.

Lumina’s feelings for Ryder are less contrived and we are swept along with her as she is more and more caught up in the increasingly dangerous situation. This new drive is beautifully captured in the title of episode 7 “Tick Tock, Little Rabbit”. The clock is ticking, and the little bunny’s time is almost up. The first series ends in a cliff hanger which leaves you wanting more, and very hopeful for a continuation to the series.

The series was shot on a RED ONE camera, and looks awesome. The sound and editing are also very nicely executed. For a sci fi show there isn’t much by way of special effects, but that doesn’t hurt the story. Actually, they’re not necessary, and in this climate of too much CGI, it’s nice to see something without much by way of effects.

The Last Word: Like with Star Trek the Next Generation, I am very much looking forward to another season of Lumina. I think we’re going to see some great things coming from Jennifer Thym.