One Hundred Eyes

There is a "Netflix Original" tv series called Marco Polo.  I'm a sucker for historical shows, especially if they feature martial arts.  Since this show had both I couldn't resist!

As a short story writer, I really love this day and age we live in with TV series.  I love how so many of them now tell sprawling tales with complex character development serial style.  This style of storytelling is something that short story readers have known about since forever but only now does it seem to really be hitting the mainstream media.

Marco Polo took that serial style one step further by creating a spin off short film (about 30 minutes long) that told the backstory of one of the reoccurring side characters, One Hundred Eyes.  In the series, One Hundred Eyes is the kick butt martial arts master.  What makes him even more hard core is that he's blind.  Nothing is cooler than a blind kung fu master who can hear the enemy coming from a mile awhile.  The short spin off film explores how he came into the service of the Mongolian court and, even better, finally explains how he was blinded.

I'm biased but I feel like stories told in this way provide a much deeper experience than a standalone full-length movie or book.  Told at the same time, backstory like One Hundred Eyes would seem like a pointless tangent as it would detract from the the Marco Polo plot.  But presented as its own story, the two combined create a much richer tale.

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