Painted Skin 画皮

[renzhe]

I watched this last night and found it OK. An interesting take on a classic story, delivered in the fantasy genre. A fox demon hiding under a female human skin tries to win the heart of a married nobleman, with ghosthunters out to get her, including the wife's former lover.

Apparently, many people hated it, but I thought it was enjoyable enough if you take it for what it is -- a short fantasy ghost story.

[jiangl]

So overall you liked it? I might give it a try. A week ago I was in the middle of downloading it, but a Chinese friend of mine describe it as a "horrible" movie, so I gave it up. I later found it she meant to say "horror" movie. How high up Cheesy Mountain do the special effects climb?

[renzhe]

Don't expect too much. If you're looking to pass two hours with some fantasy, it's OK. The acting is fine, the language is not difficult and, while there is some cheesiness, the special effects are quite good.

It's not scary at all. It's much more of a love story with ghosts than a horror movie.

There are definitely far better movies coming out of China nowadays, but also far worse ones.

[ABCinChina]

I dunno, I kind of liked it and would recommend watching it. Worth watching IMO...

[Luobot]

It's not scary at all. It's much more of a love story with ghosts than a horror movie.

That's what I love about the Chinese Ghost Story genre.

[character]

I thought it was worth watching, but had too many genres uneasily coexisting to be a great film.

Edited December 25, 2008 at 09:40 AM by character
typo

[jameslc]

Painted Skin is my favorite film, strongly recommended.

[Jacob]

Watched it the other day with my girlfriend.

Production quality was good, but like most fantasy kung-fu movies, there was a lot of

"I will bust you demon!"

"You can't catch me if I jump 30 feet on a roof"

"Oh yeah? I can jump 30 feet in the air too!"

I also have to point it's the first time I see a chinese movie with swords and crossbows that didn't have a team of extra numbering in the tens of thousands.

It wasn't scary at all, nor gory. So it's not really an "horror" movie in the western kind of way. They didn't even build tension, psychological or otherwise.

Though I have to admit, my girlfriend, being chinese, seemed to have been scared at certain moment, but I guess that Child's Play, Jason, Halloween and the likes has rendered me insensitive to cheap "Peek-a-boo" scare.

My girlfriend was real helpful helping me distinguish between the demon and the nobleman's wife (Yes, I am that bad at identification)

But I had a lot of fun learning new almost-useful words like "怪物" and "妖怪"

No doubt I'll be using them alllll the time (sh)

[chaxiu]

I watched it over the weekend. I thought it was quite good. It's quite a simple story and found I could understand more that usual.(that is usually I have to switch between English and Chinese subtitles)

Chaxiu

[yersi]

I didn't like this at all, I thought it was very uneven and did a poor job of mixing the serious and comedic parts (this is a pet peeve of mine with HK films). But the killer for me was the background music; it didn't fit the setting or the pace of the film at all, and sounded like it was made with some cheapo synthesizers from the late 90s.

My girlfriend loved it though, maybe it's a Chinese thing I don't get.