Is it worth watching? Read on to find out.
One
of the things I remember being really excited about when I first moved to
Singapore was being able to watch my favourite Hong Kong, Korean and Asian
movies at the cinema. Initially
I was a bit annoyed by how all the Cantonese movies were dubbed into Mandarin,
especially if it was the work of an actor I was more familiar with, however,
not being able to really understand either language meant that the big screen
experience usually remained untarnished.
So
we come to one of the big summer releases from China – Painted Skin 2: The
Resurrection. I actually quite liked the
original Painted Skin and managed to catch it while I was out travelling
through Hong Kong and Singapore when it was released in 2008. The story was based loosely on one of the
famous tales by Pu Songling. He
published a series of short stories collectively known as Strange Stories from
a Chinese Studio in 1740 (I've just ordered my English language copy on Amazon). From these
tales many well known supernatural movies and TV serials have been made,
including the classic Leslie Cheung starring vehicle 'A Chinese Ghost Story'.
The
first Painted Skin movie was not favored by people in Hong Kong and Singapore
as it apparently deviated so much from the stories they had heard growing up as
children. Not being familiar with such
tales meant that I could appreciate it for what it was, quite an interesting
film. A film about a female demon in
love with a human man and being forced to literally eat human hearts, despite
despising it, to stay alive in human form to be with him. It was interesting that she was not
inherently evil but seemed to be doing everything she did out of genuine love
for a man, something all the people hunting her would not be able to see. In the end she would sacrifice everything for
true love. Whether her love was
reciprocated or not I will let you decide.
A
few years have passed and now we have the second movie – with no Donnie Yen I
should add. Donnie can be quite hit and
miss with his movies. Sha Po Lang, Ip
man and Wu Xia are amazing but his other recent offerings not so. He did add a nice touch to the first movie,
some comedic relief at times, but his presence is not really missed in this.
First
off the bat, despite what Wikipedia says – this is indeed a sequel to the 2008
movie. Zhou Xun returns as the sexily
seductive Xiao Wei – The Fox Spirit.
However, the story takes place 500 years after the events of the first
movie. Zhao Wei and Chen Kun are once
again lovers but as different characters.
Who knows, maybe they are reincarnated versions of the characters in the
first movie. For the sacrifice Xiao Wei the Fox Spirit made in the first movie we find her imprisoned in ice in this second
movie. With the aid of a Bird Spirit she
is able to escape from this fortress of solitude. Xiao Wei once again finds
herself in the company of Zhao Wei who is this time the princess of a nation and
Chen Kun a warrior in her army.
Things
get complicated from hereon out. The
princess has been betrothed to marry the prince of an evil clan to unite their two nations, if she does not marry him then the evil clan will effectively declare war on
the princess’s White City. However, the princess is in love with the warrior who in turn loves her but feels that he is not worthy of a place
by her side. Add to this Xiao Wei who wants nothing more than to be human and we have an interesting mix. Xiao Wei wishes to be able to
love and be loved, to touch, to taste, to smell, these are the things she yearns for
the most. In that sense the viewer can
get a glimpse of the type of hell that is her life, a life in which she cannot
die and yet cannot truly live. We can
empathize with her situation and understand why she appears to manipulate the princess and the warrior in the way that she does. She takes advantage of the princess's insecurities about her scarred face, a scar from a childhood injury which she believes may be the reason the warrior cannot bring himself to be with her. Xiao Wei casts a spell on the warrior making him become infatuated with her in the hope that she can use this to entice the princess to freely accept her cunning proposal.
It is revealed that under certain special circumstances it is possible for a human and a spirit to
change places. So Xiao Wei may become human and so the princess may adopt Xiao Wei's form to be with the warrior she loves. Queue some Face/Off style
shenanigans where the movie really lives up to it’s name and things get even
more complicated.
I
quite enjoyed this movie but that is not to say that the movie is without fault
because there are quite a few. It is
slightly too long and the whole sub-story featuring the evil clan, to me,
served only to distract from the main story which was the relationship between
the spirit, the princess and the warrior. I found it
refreshing to see the spirit not as an evil entity per se but just as a being
trying to find a way out. In fact, with all the skin changing that goes on
it appeared that she was trying to devise a way that would allow all parties to
be happy with the deal. But alas, things
are never that simple in the movie world.
I
have to make a special mention of the rather good special effects. It really looks as if movies from Hong Kong
and China are now second only to the US.
I’m sure guys, and perhaps some ladies, will enjoy the pool skin-changing
scene.
All
in all, a pretty entertaining movie. I’m
glad I saw it and would recommend people try to catch it but I doubt I’ll be
adding this one to my collection once it’s released on Blu-ray. Seeing the superior first movie prior to watching
it is recommended.
Don’t
go in expecting a martial arts movie but more a supernatural thriller and
you should leave happy.
Rating
3/5
Bobby
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