Starring: Vicky Zhao Wei, Zhou Xun, Chen Kun, Mini Yang Mi
Director: Wuershan
Category: IIB (Putonghua)
Resurrection? Regression more like, as director Wuershan's attempt to outdo Gordon Chan Ka-seung's Painted Skin trips on the same missteps of many a slammed mainland blockbuster of years past.
Heavy on digitally enhanced imagery and light on narrative poise, Wuershan - a former director of television commercials - has delivered a flashy yet hollow piece, its stunning effects barely obscuring a premise driven by a mish-mash of influences from Western fairy tales and feted period Chinese movies.
Painted Skin - The Resurrection bears only the slightest link to the Pu Chongling tale which provided this and its 2008 predecessor with their titles. The connecting tissue is Xiaowei (Zhou Xun), the fox spirit who sacrificed herself in the first film's final act to give a married couple happy-ever-after ending.
Here, she has been frozen for 500 years, breaking free with the help of bird demon Quer (Mini Yang Mi), after which she again devours hearts to stay alive.
Xiaowei then meets Jing (Vicky Zhao Wei, right, with Zhou), a princess tracking soldier Huo Xin (Chen Kun), who has been stationed at a far-flung outpost. Disfigured by a bear attack while in her teens - which led to Huo, her guard and also object of affections, being exiled - Jing fails to get Huo to admit his feelings for her. Xiaowei and Jing strike a pact, with Jing trading in her heart for Xiaowei's skin (and Huo's love).
