Painted Skin

If your ideal fantasy genre contains unrelenting action and adventure, Painted Skin may not be the title for you. But, if you're looking for a beautiful dramatic romance, that is as poetic as it is entertaining, you will not be disappointed.

Written in an intelligently mature fashion, and performed with emotional poignancy, Painted Skin is quite unlike its American contrasts, with stories of battlers fought for love occasionally becoming lost in bloody violence and nudity. This Chinese feature delivers a tasteful approach, that sacrifices in your face thrills and excitement, for a gripping character driven tale of unrequited romance.

General Sheng returns home with his army after defeating barbarians infringing on his borders, bringing a beautiful young woman he rescued with him. His wife is immediately suspicious of the young woman, and becomes more so when her former paramour, Yong, a soldier turned nomad, returns to the city at the same time as gorgeous demon hunter, Xia, both firmly believing the woman is not who she claims.

There is, without a doubt, more to the mysterious woman, Xiao, than meets the eye, though any accusations are rendered preposterous in the eyes of those who appreciate her. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, Yong and Xia begin investigating, only to find themselves in the middle of a battle, plagued by conspiracy, jealously, betrayal and lust.

Although there are a number of astounding action sequences, Painted Skin is more of a cat and mouse thriller, with many of the fights taking place in conversations, where one character is always trying to outwit the other. At its heart, the film reveals that no sacrifice is too great when you love someone, both the script and the actors capturing the emotion perfectly, from the beauty of romance, to the grueling pain of loss.

Unlike in other films, where demons are purely villainous antagonists, Painted Skin makes demons and humans alike sympathetic characters, with breakable hearts, and many a vulnerability, the seductive storyline between man and demon being similar to the fourth Hellraiser. With this in mind, though a sex scene is apparent, nothing is ever seen, the tasteful directional style presenting the audience with all of the passion, but not at the expense of the actor's privacy.

With outstanding special effects that draw you further into the plot, alongside a soundtrack that mirrors the turmoil and romance exhibited in the film, Painted Skin is a perfect fantasy that you do not want to miss.

A film awash with spirits that will wonderfully entertain you without a latter feeling of intoxication! "Hua Pi" (Painted Skin) is another lavish looking Chinese film epic based upon a tale from a book. Its a non horror/scary supernatural romance with the love story taken to an amazingly sensuous high!

Donnie Yens role is not entirely of a Kung Fu action outing - as is his usual film roles - and his character is not the high point of the film. Rather he blends into the film - as one - with all the films characters and, you therefore get more of an in depth knowledge concerning each participating characters being. The sets are beautiful and all the actors/actresses play their roles brilliantly; the camera work and lighting and CGI was sublime quality almost unsurpassed!

It being a romantic love story it does not mean that its a film that only females will enjoy. Though many men will not openly admit it (due to the stupid being macho idea), a lot of men will enjoy this also. There is also enough action for those who can't enjoy/like a film unless it includes action...what a mundane and sad approach to cinema enjoyment.

Make sure to watch the sequel, "Painted Skin: The Resurrection (2012)" (aka "Hua pi 2"). Different characters, but with the same excellence of film enjoyment!

The movie painted skin is loosely based on a legendary Supranatural Chinese tale 'Hua Pi' about a disguised demon under a human skin(drawn skin exactly). Like many favorite ancient tales, despite the illogical and senseless aspect, always have some moral aspect to be dig or contemplated over. Painted skin in this case is not much different of. It digs a very deep portrait about the meaning of love and the willing of sacrificing for love. And believe it or not the movie want to show us that not only do human can sacrifice when it came to the matter of love.

Although stamped as a 'horror' movie but sorry to say, don't expect to see very much horror in it. It's nowhere near the horror like you saw in most Zombie movie or modern slasher horror. It's in a more mannerly and elegant way to level its emotion to human being and in my opinion the horror thing is just to dramatize the center love story and not really the main course in the first place. Some humor in the movie is driven well enough to at least force some smirk on audiences. And for those who're aware, with Donnie Yen as the main cast, one can expect less than some martial arts showdown. The rest of the cast is very eye catching especially the irresistible beauty of Zhou Xun.

And finally orchestrated by veteran director Gordon Chan who has experienced in so much genre since his existence in mid 80's, the movie is not disappointed at all except in my opinion if only the director did try boldly adapted a more tragic ending, it could really be better. Because in order to keep the movie running, when the plot seems finally reach an end path, the revealing of the demon's true identity in the end is way out of the blue and the motive is also very laudable.

I'll give it a fair 6/10. Not Special but Enjoyable.

After all the effort of building international reputation with films like "Heroes" and "Crouching Tiger", Chinese film has gone back to the starting point with this one. "Painted Skin" is nothing but an amateur attempt trying to imitate other ones, without sufficient skill or patient. The lines are simple AWFUL!!! I wonder whether they came up with the script in two days. The costumes and makeup is a joke, look like recycled from other movies. The acting....Donnie Yen's performance is probably OK for a HongKong TV show and nothing else, and all those supposedly emotional scenes are so badly handled, gave me goose bumps. The worst thing of this film is the directing, the editing and camera works. It is absolutely mind-blowing that such a horrible production, worse than an average video on Youtube, has spent so much money on advertising and publicity stunt, but nothing on making this movie worth seeing.

This is not your average Donnie Yen movie. So is that a good or bad thing? Well, I found it to be a nice switch away from the usual stuff that we see from the Hong Kong martial arts star. So yes, I enjoyed "Painted Skin" (aka "Hua pi").

Directors Gordon Chan, Danny Ko and Andy Wing-Keung Chin managed to put together a good story that had a good amount of variation. "Painted Skin" is an enjoyable combination of love story, action and drama.

The talents were well-cast and it was nice to see a movie where Donnie Yen wasn't all-overshadowing over all other actors and actresses. You know what you will get from martial arts star Donnie Yen, of course. However, the two female leads Xun Zhou and Wei Zhao were really impressive in this 2008 movie.

"Painted Skin" has a lot to offer and chances are that you will find something in it too. I enjoyed the storytelling and the fact that the movie wasn't focusing on being a display of CGI effects.

The action and fight sequences were well-choreographed and equally so executed, which is a given when Donnie Yen is involved.

The costumes and sets were grand, with lots of details, and it helped bring the story to life quite well.

"Painted Skin" is a well-worthy addition to the collection of anyone who enjoys Asian cinema.