A Chinese Fairy Tale (2011)

Apparently this movie is a remake of another film by the same name which was distributed sometime in the 80's. Since I haven't seen the initial film I cannot compare it with this particular movie. Adding to my difficulties is the fact that the characters listed on IMDb are not the same characters that were in the movie. For example, the beautiful ghost played by Yifei Liu went by the name of "Siu Sin" and not "Nie Xiaoquin". No doubt the translation from Chinese to English has much to do with this. Additionally, the English subtitles on this film weren't of the highest caliber which helped only to a limited degree towards resolving what was clearly a strange and confusing movie to begin with. Be that as it may, from what I have figured out Siu Sin is a ghost who has been enslaved by a "Tree Demon" (similar to a succubus) named "Lou Lou" (Kara Hui). As a result Siu Sin is forced to seduce people who enter Lou Lou's temple on Black Mountain and then sucks the energy out of them--which in turn allows Lou Lou to gain strength. One day a demon hunter named ""Yan Chek Ha" (Louis Koo) appears and falls in love with Siu Sin. But in doing so he destroys his reputation with his master which causes him to go into isolation. A while later a minor government official named "Ning Caichen" (Shaoqun Yu) journeys to Black Mountain in search of water and finds Siu Sin in the temple. She initially attempts to seduce him but fails because of his innocence. This makes Lou Lou quite angry but before she can do anything about it Yan Chek Ha returns to Black Mountain with a vengeance of his own. Now, while it's quite possible that I may have missed something in translation I still enjoyed the movie for the most part. It had plenty of action and the CGI complemented the movie in a major way. There was also some good humor here and there as well. Likewise, it didn't hurt to have such a beautiful actress like Yifei Liu in a prominent role either. Again, it's a bit confusing but those who enjoy a decent Fantasy film might want to give this one a look. Over all, I rate it as slightly above average.

This is what happens when you remake a classic but can't decide if you want to go for a fresh take of the story or if you want to imitate the original. In this case, the director/writer decided that it'd tell original story as well as copying some aspect of the original. Well, it doesn't work.At the start, the film has an interesting original twist: Louis Koo's character, Yan Chixia, is revealed to be the main love interest for Liu Yifei's character, Nie Xiaoqian. Unfortunately, instead of exploring this new take of the story, the writers decided to also include the scholar character to create some kind of love triangle.This is pointless because unlike Leslie Cheung in the original, the actor who plays Ning Caichen in this film is completely devoid of any charisma. On top of this, he's also a VERY AWFUL actor. As a result, the audience's sympathy immediately defaults back to Louis Koo's character, which admittedly is pretty cool.And here's the problem: Koo's character doesn't get shown that often until the later half of the story. Instead, the story decides to retell the whole encounter of Ning Caichen and Nie Xiaoqian from the original film. So you are now forced to watch some cringe-worthy scenes of the chemistry-less couple until the end reveals the real pairing of the story.One would also think that since the original is pretty outdated in terms of FX, this one will at least have some good one. Unfortunately that's not the case either. Sure, it's slightly better but it's nothing extraordinary. In fact, most scenes look bland and lack the mystery/enchantment of the original.In summary: disappointing remake of a classic. The only redeeming factor is the introduction of the new character played by Koo. But since he's not even featured that often in the story, the whole point of a retelling ended up being moot.

I have only watch the original once, when it's on TV, and it's quite good. So I thought I might give this a try.The director of my favorite Chinese film last year (Ip Man 2) directed this movie, Louis Koo is in this movie (one of the better actor Hong Kong's film industry had to offer). I mean how could this movie get a score lower than a 7? That's was what I thought before I watch the movie.Half an hour into the movie, I had already regretted I spent RM8 on this. This movie is a huge disappointment. It's boring, the character is dull and the post production crew didn't even try to get some good voice actor to dub the Mandarin speaking character. Seriously, the character's face does not match their voice. (I watch the Cantonese version).And the acting done by the guy who play Ning Choi San is really bad. Didn't they held an audition to find suitable actor/actress? Because of the bad voice acting and unsuitable actor, the only character you really care about in the whole movie is really Louis Koo alone.Also, Wai Ying Hong's character as the tree monster is a bit exaggerating and ridiculous, the next thing we know, the villain ends up becoming the second funniest character in the movie.Finally, what is wrong with Hong Kong's film industry lately? Why are there a myriad of actor/actress from mainland China in Hong Kong movie lately? Most of the character in this movie are played by mainland Chinese actor/actress. It's not like I'm a racist against mainland Chinese or anything, but if you can't speak Cantonese, don't audition for a role that needs you to speak Cantonese. It ends up becoming a mess after the dubbing.P/S: I'm really sad I had to say this, but the only good thing about this movie is the babes and Louis Koo's jokes.

The Tsui Hark production "A Chinese Ghost Story" is without a doubt a seminal classic of Hong Kong cinema, successfully blending some of its signature elements like over-the-top action, overwrought emotions and a dizzying mix of various genres- in this instance, romance, comedy and horror. It is a tall task then to attempt a reinterpretation of it, but "Ip Man" director Wilson Yip has boldly attempted to go where no Hong Kong director has dared to tread.It seems however that this reluctance has been for good reason- despite Yip's efforts at mimicking the hallmarks of the earlier film, his 2011 remake is a slapdash product with little actual merit. The ineptness of Yip's version is indeed appalling- especially considering his solid, if not outstanding, work on the two "Ip Man" movies- and in almost every respect proves to be inferior to Ching Siu-Tung's original. That is, except for its end credits- and only because it rehases the late Leslie Cheung's classic theme song.Right from the beginning, one can sense that there is something amiss with the movie. A hastily-told prologue tries to establish- but fails to do so with any resonance- the doomed romance between demon slayer Yan Chi Xia (Louis Koo) and Nip Siu-Sin, or Xiao Qian (Liu Yifei) as she is more popularly known. Apparently, Cia Xia didn't have the heart to kill Siu-Sin when the time came for him to do so- instead, he erased her memory of their relationship and set her free, thereby also falling out with another demon slayer Thunder (played by Ip Man regular Fan Siu-Wong).Fans of the original would already suspect the difference between the two, and true enough, the focus of Yip's movie seems to have shifted to the character of Chi Xia- in the process, setting up Leslie Cheung's Ning Cai Chen (played here by the terrible Chinese actor Yu Shaoqun) as a romantic rival instead to Chi Xia for Siu-Sin's affections. Cheung's classic character turns out to be the scholar a water-impoverished town turns to for assistance, and it is to solve their water woes that Cai Chen ventures into the mountains, meets Siu-Sin and lands up at Lan Tze Temple.As with the original, the trio's common enemy is the Tree Demon, to whom Siu-Sin's spirit is enslaved to and with whom Chi Xia and Cai Chen will eventually battle against in a CG-heavy action-packed finale. The latter has Yip demonstrating the sure hand he had with the action sequences in "Ip Man", and is easily the best thing the movie has going for it. Complementing the fluid martial arts choreography (among the choreographers veteran Ma Yuk-Shing) is the impressive visual effects- done post-production in Korea- which only goes to show that the China film industry can very well handle CG as competently as its Hollywood counterparts.Unfortunately, the hour before this climactic battle is one tedious slog, no thanks to a dreadful script by Cheung Tan (also equally guilty for the Chen Kaige dud 'The Promise'). Not only is the dialogue god-awful and filled with moments of unintentional humour, there is close to little characterisation- be it Chi Xia, Cai Chen, or Sui-Sin. Yip compensates for Cheung's bad scripting with a somewhat frenetic pace, but that's not enough to distract his audience from its flaws and repetitive scenes. Most importantly, the romantic triangle also fails to take off, and remains stuck in cutesy scenes (what's up with the feeding of sweets) that belong in a teenage fantasy. And because one never quite comes to believe in the star-crossed romance between human and demon, the finale also lacks the poignancy of the original.Equally uninspired is the acting- or rather, the lack of it- on display. Louis Koo attempts to emote as one half in an ill-fated romance, but doesn't quite succeed. Yifei has the beguiling looks to go with her part, but lacks conviction. But the worst of the lot is Mainland actor Yu Shaoqun, who proves time and time again that he simply cannot act (if you've seen last year's Kung Fu Wing Chun, you'll agree too). His portrayal of the shy soft-spoken and good-hearted romantic lover is simply ingratiating and an utter insult to Leslie Cheung's nuanced performance. Ditto for Louis and Yifei, whose acting can't hold a candle to Wu Ma and Joey Wong's in the original.There are however exceptions- Kara Hui is gleefully campy as the Tree Demon, while Elvis Tsui, who also starred in the original, offers some welcome comic relief as the chief of the village Cai Chen visits. Yet these are little consolation for a movie that never justifies its existence, paling in every respect to Ching Siu-Tong's classic. And the horror of it all? The filmmakers had the audacity to think that their efforts were worthy enough for them to dedicate this film to the late Leslie Cheung!