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I recall there's a fictional work (possibly a TV series or a movie or film. The cinematographic style seemed to be films before the 90s (most likely range is 1960-1999), i.e. resembling the prop based filming style of earlier days Star Trek and Star Wars films) which has a strange calligraphic style magic. However I do not remember the name of the work. The magic has the following properties:

  1. Spells are written on calligraphy paper with a brush pen
  2. The "ink" can be either some kind of paste made from minerals dissolving in liquid, may be metallic or not similar to alchemy, or resemble usual calligraphic ink
  3. Kanji and Chinese/Japanese ink wash painting style (Has a shan shui like impression, especially the ethereal cloud/fog style (for example)) strokes were written and painted on the paper
  4. The resulting spell depends on the type of paper used, composition of the paste or ink, and the symbols, strokes and Kanji wrote or painted
  5. The spell is cast after all writing or strokes were added
  6. Asians are not the only ones who can perform it. In fact, if I recall, the main cast in the plot are all westerners

One of the spells seemed to end up conjuring a swarm of flying insects from thin air. The scene reminds of a greyish dungeon where the characters were in (I forgot whether they ran away from something after the insect scene, or they conjure the swarm of insects and then ran away). The dungeon/tomb like environment prompt me to check out the Indiana Jones series, but it does not have a scene that resembles that.

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  • Nice start, but take a look here for some tips on how to improve your question.
    – Gallifreyan
    Jan 23, 2017 at 22:14
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    This is really an instance where I question if it was in English or not. Also, are you certain it was chinese characters, or was it a character based writing system? Because kanji are Japanese, for example.
    – Broklynite
    Jan 24, 2017 at 8:43
  • I have edited the question. It feels like chinese shan shui painting, but that style is not unique to the chinese, so japanese may be a possibility
    – Secret
    Jan 24, 2017 at 10:05
  • Okay, so at the very least it was a character-based system that used Asian ideas, if not one particular system. What language was this broadcast in, English? What country? When did you see it? Can you remember any other details, no matter how tiny? Was this magic performed exclusively by Asians? What was the plot? We're the characters male or female? Every little thing helps.
    – Broklynite
    Jan 24, 2017 at 11:15
  • Because of how the cinematographic style strongly reminds of the days back when movies were made mostly via props with minimal CGI, this basically lock the film or movie or tv series back in the period 1960-1999, the show is broadcasted in english, as I do not recall seeing anything of that style in other language and I don't speak other western languages besides English, thus it has to be english when I watched it
    – Secret
    Jan 24, 2017 at 11:36

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