Starring: Eva Huang Shengyi, Jet Li Lianjie, Wen Zhang, Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin Director: Tony Ching Siu-tung Category: IIA (Cantonese)
What is The Sorcerer and the White Snake? It is a movie, of course, but at times it feels like a screen-saver with images taken from an online video game.
Directed by Tony Ching Siu-tung, this film adaptation of a Chinese folk legend begins with the sorcerer Fa Hai (Jet Li, above centre) and his disciple (Wen Zang) exorcising a demon who takes the form of a beautiful woman. These early scenes, with characters performing gravity-defying airborne stunts, set the tone of the movie: the action choreography is poetic but fluffy, the dialogue earnest but corny, and the special effects expensive but overblown.
Things get slightly more interesting when the focus is on the romance between the demon White Snake (Eva Huang Shengyi), a snake that has attained human form, and the handsome herbalist Xu Xian (Raymond Lam Fung). Yet Fa Hai, adhering to his diehard beliefs, can't allow this to happen despite the fact that the snake isn't harming anyone but herself for falling so madly in love with a mortal.
An epic battle between the monk and the snake, which almost destroys the world, ensues. The script is apparently inspired by Tsui Hark's 1993 fantasy film Green Snake. While Tsui's version of the ancient classic is an overdone but thoughtful political allegory, Ching's update is escapist entertainment that stupefies audiences with too many computer-generated special effects.
As the visual onslaught begins, the content of the film starts to thin and what's left are cheesy and contrived declarations of love.