Trailer 1 [English subtitles]


Trailer 2 video by The Sorcerer & The White Snake (It's Love)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1857913/
Filmsmash thread (track for updates): http://s6.zetaboards.com/FilmSmash/topic/1183347/

A new version of Madame White Snake.

Starring Jet Li...
and Eva Huang.

Directed by Tony Ching.

I must be dreaming, because this is too good to be true.

Thanks for posting, Hyomil!

Yep, I'm sold on this one from the trailers alone. Eva Huang I haven't come across before, but she looks good and Vivian Hsu, Charlene Choi, and Sonija Kwok are all favorites. Didn't recognize Tony Ching's name, as I see he's known more as an action choreographer, but on a lot of movies I liked.

If you don't know Ching's name, it's probably because Tsui Hark's name was mentioned instead; he wrote and produced most of the films Ching directed. "A Tsui Hark production!" But Tony Ching directed the Chinese Ghost Story movies AND the Swordsman trilogy. That puts him up there with Tsui as one of the most gifted (and experienced) directors of fast-paced Chinese supernatural films.

Ching has already gotten one of Jet Li's best performances, in Swordsman 2, so I'm hoping they can spark another legendary performance. Swordsman 2 featured Brigitte Lin in a smoldering, intense performance that led Ronny Yu to cast her in The Bride with White Hair, which is one of my all-time favorites, the film that sparked my decades-long love of Hong Kong cinema. Eva Huang has an intense, beautiful, intelligent presence that hasn't been fully explored; if Ching can find her... essence (?) ... as he found Brigitte Lin's, it will take our breath away.

I haven't been this excited about a movie in a while.

this movie looks REALLY good. love the mix of magic and martial arts.

Saved this as a draft and forgot I didn't get back to it:



There does seem to be an assumed limit on the number of names audiences will remember. Sometimes they won't even say the crew member's name. "From the writer/director/producer of Movie X..." and they don't even say their name! They just forge right on with "...comes a new story of courage..." As if its too hard for them to pronounce or its a name like "Dick Nibbler" that they don't feel comfortable saying. Its odd because they have no trouble wasting 30 secs. to a minute at the beginning of trailers with silly animations of the production company logos. Maybe the production companies want the most widely-recognizable name mentioned, and if the director is a newcomer, it won't be theirs. They'll mention Tsui Hark's name, even if he had little to do with the movie. And until the newcomer gets a large stable of hits, and maybe only if his fame eclipses Tsui Hark's, they'll just keep doing it.

Maybe I tune out the names sometimes because the name dropping strikes me as an indication that a movie can't stand on its own merits. "From the director who brought you A Chinese Ghost Story, so it MUST be good, no matter HOW bad the following trailer looks..." Sometimes I imagine when they only have newcomers, they'll eventually reach to "From the craft services company who brought you Naked Weapon, Chef Boyardee, comes a new treat..."

The Bride With White Hair is high on my to-see list. I did see Swordsman 2 a long time ago and it didn't make much impression except it seemed somewhat bizarre, though I'm sure there's a background to these movies that goes over my head. Checking my database, I see I gave it 6/10. What's good with Eva Huang?
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Eva_Huang
http://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?i ... ay_set=eng

Just going with my initial gut reaction, I have:

The Man Behind The Courtyard House (2010)
Excited to see

Road Less Traveled (2010)
Will see because Karen Mok is in it.

A Singing Fairy (2009)
Not planning on it

The Fantastic Water Babes (2008)
Will see because Gillian Chung is in it.

Call For Love (2007)
Not planning on it

Sword Stained With Royal Blood (2006)
Not planning on it

The Wild Ninja (2006)
Not planning on it

Dragon Squad (2005)
Excited to see

The King Of Beggars (2005)
Probably will see

Heaven's Eye (2005)
Not planning on it

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
Couldn't finish it. Not funny, and annoying (1/10) Probably never got to her part.

Trailer 3 video by The Sorcerer & The White Snake (It's Love)

Music Video:

No dialog to speak of--just gives a good sense of the power of the forces involved in wirework. They make it look effortless and even casual in the final product, and it sometimes seems fake. But you can imagine here if you were strapped into those wires, in addition to a fear of heights, you'd be quite preoccupied with hoping that the forces used are applied in just the right amounts at just the right times so you don't get jerked too hard or into anything:

Behind The Scenes 2 video by The Sorcerer & The White Snake (It's Love)

Trailer 4 video by The Sorcerer & The White Snake (It's Love)

Available now at AsianDVDClub. Some reviews here: http://s6.zetaboards.com/FilmSmash/topic/1183347/5/

Difficult to rate. There are a number of good scenes and the acting is good, with the partial exception of Raymond Lam, whose mild-mannered herbalist character is sometimes either blank or mechanical. This wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that Eva Huang's character is completely lovesick over him from the start, building to a crazy "I'll destroy the world to keep him" obsession that the movie spends most of its time on, which is difficult to credit, especially when she seems better matched with Charlene Choi's character.

I thought about saying the problem was it was aimed at a younger audience or that it was too much of a fairytale, but its more that it doesn't seem like they really had much in mind in making it--they just cobbled together some things that don't really fit or flow well. The relationships aren't believable or developed and the movie relies on the chemistry the actors were able to create during shooting. Since its a remake, they should have had plenty of source material to mine, but it feels like they were pressed to even come up with enough ideas to fill the running time. They try hard to make the action seem epic, but a lot of it is not that imaginative and has a lot rapid cutting to try to spice it up. Its pretty tough to make it seem epic, anyway, when the storyline is so shallow. The momentum fizzles. It also starts to feel manipulative. Only Jet Li has real martial arts skill, so they just didn't bother to make much of the female action beyond CGI, which was not that great for the most part, though there were exceptions. The cheesy talking animals didn't help and were just one of many things that felt thrown in to try to appeal to all audiences (and genuinely satisfy none of them).

It was commercially successful, though, and they've already announced a sequel, which will be in 3D and have a greater budget. They should use it to hire better writers or better editors for the writers. They'd also do well to focus more on the relationship of Eva Huang's and Charlene Choi's characters, as their chemistry was clear:

i liked it but it definitely could have been better. my main problem was how over powered the monk was against these thousand year old demons as well as him being generally a jackass.