An adaptation of a short story from the classic Strange Stories From a Chinese Studio (聊齋誌異), a collection of supernatural tales by Qing Dynasty writer Pu Sungling (蒲松齡), Painted Skin (畫皮) is designed to be a blockbuster that appeals to all with a recipe of ghosts, kung fu and romance, a little comedy and an ensemble of Chinese A-listers including Zhao Wei (趙薇), Zhou Xun (周迅), Chen Kun (陳坤) and action superstar Donnie Yen (甄子丹).
The story begins with general Wang Sheng (Chen Kun) rescuing the charming young Xiaowei (Zhou Xun) from bandits in the desert. Trouble soon arises in Wang’s household as Xiaowei plots to take over as the new Mrs Wang and sows discord between the general and his demure wife, Peirong (Zhao Wei).
Jealous of her new maid, Peirong begins to suspect that Xiaowei may be responsible for a spate of gruesome killings that occurred upon her arrival and strives to reveal the vixen’s real identity: a fox spirit who has assumed human form and feeds on human hearts to maintain her youth and beauty.
Wang, who has erotic dreams involving Xiaowei, naturally wants to hear nothing of it. In despair, Peirong turns to Yong (Donnie Yen) for help. A former general himself and one-time rival of Wang for Peirong’s affections, Yong still carries a torch for the general’s wife.
With the help of bumbling demon buster Xia Bing (Betty Sun), Yong sets out to investigate Xiaowei and the series of murders in which the victims’ hearts have been ripped out. The drama that unfolds explores loyalty and temptation, unrequited desire and unconditional love.
With its narrative-driven, genre-meshing bent, Painted Skin recalls the greatly successful A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂) series from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The film is content to tell a melodramatic story laced with a bit of everything, and in so doing sets itself apart from the hollow epics that have plagued Chinese cinema in recent years.
Leading the action is Yen, engaging in a generic rooftop chase in the night, sword duels and a blurry desert battle that are well-executed but offer nothing new or exciting.
Yen delivers a refreshing change of pace from his usual onscreen persona as he takes up the role of comic relief together with Chinese actress Sun. Unintentionally amusing moments are provided by a murderous lizard demon, who also has a thing for Xiaowei, and, with his silver-highlighted hair, looks like a character from a computer game.
Painted Skin’s biggest drawback is its lack of well-developed romantic plots among its characters, especially the love triangle between Wang Sheng, Xiaowei and Peirong, which is the focal point of the narrative. Incredibly miscast, Chen lacks the intensity to play a husband torn between his devoted wife and a temptress, rendering a drama that is based on intricate emotions less convincing, a situation that is only worsened by a jerky script that fails to develop chemistry among the characters.
What impresses and engages are the performances by Zhou and Zhao. A versatile actress, Zhou is able to instill a fair dose of humanity into her role as the evil vixen, while Zhao shows composure as the loyal and modest wife.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist