Painted Skin 2 (2012) - The Resurrection - W/ English Subtitle by ZHOU XUN - ZHAO WEI - CHEN KUN - MINI YANG -

I've been a Chinese film buff for 20 years, and Painted Skin II stands at the zenith, an "art" film that blew me away. Even the beginning credits are sumptuous, almost 3D yet in a 2D version. The story-line is edited to the max, no extra nonsense. Then we have a simplicity of theme in just 2 primary colors-- blue and gold, opposites of the spectrum, and perfectly symbolizing the extremes of cold and warm. Everything is beyond reality, things like gold armor, and women who look great even when they're scarred.This is a love story beyond most, and even the music is Perfect. I can't understand why it never got a Hollywood award for ANYTHING! What about the cinema-photography? Not good, but Great! Why can't Hollywood films get perfect editing like this one? And why can't Hollywood writers and directors put a film this perfect together? This film raises the bar, and it makes Hollywood fare look amateurish. Nuf said.

Chen Kun is an amazing actor and I'm trying to follow all of his work. He's so charismatic and so mesmerizing in his roles, that I can't see him being part of any bad productions. This one is no exception. The main character is a fox spirit who creates havoc wherever she goes as she needs to eat human hearts to remain a youthful woman. But this is a story about love and sacrifice, and how love can conquer all. It's very visually pleasing as well -it's like poetry to your eyes. I call it a fable because it's a fictitious tale on morality.

A poetic, Chinese romantic fantasy tragedy with a dash of stylistic anime-esque action.This mythology-flavored story begins when a fox demon in the form of a beautiful woman (Xun Zhou; Cloud Atlas, Painted Skin) is freed from an icy prison by her bird demon sister (Mini Yang; Wu Dang). They are called demons. But they're not your typical satanic, drooling, toothy-mawed monster demons. They're more like evil immortal beings.The obscure story is driven by our two female leads. The millennia-old Fox seeks the willing heart of a mortal man in order to become human and a warrior Princess (Wei Zhao; Red Cliff, Painted Skin) who hides a facial battle wound behind a mask seeks her one past love (Kun Chen; Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Painted Skin). They meet and the Fox offers to help the princess--a favor which comes with a price. The rest of the story is hard to explain without giving too much away...I won't even try. All I'll say is that this is a romantic tragedy told in a fantasy setting in which all of the love-seeking protagonists are deeply and differently flawed.This film makes every effort to please the eyes with long wispy dresses, impossibly long hair flowing in the wind, a scintillatingly colored wardrobe for the Fox and princess, and CGI-enhanced lighting. The CGI elements are far behind their time, much as we would see in an early 90s movie (when it would have been first rate). However, despite its obviousness, it is occasionally crisp and beautiful...other times just plain lame.The special effects techniques--among other components of the film--contribute to a strong sense of high fantasy with story-telling that feels like a story-driven videogame. The presence of a dire bear, magical items, forbidden love and demons contribute to this feeling.Though rare, the action is uniquely stylized. While I am often disappointed by film editing which obscures the execution of techniques such that you don't really "see" them being executed from start to finish in one clip, this film delivers action in a way that I can compare to none other; it's impressive. Some of these moves couldn't possibly be executed by stunt men and sometimes CGI-ing the impossible just cheapens the experience. Yet here I enjoyed it as I would a comic book, a glimpse at a time with a notion of anime-action transition. It's hard to explain.The finale may be exciting for early teens, but I found it all quite silly. This movie fell apart in the last 40 (of 130) minutes for me. But I guess it was still worth watching this beautiful movie.

Just too dang pretty....and too dang slow. But that's okay. I'll need another viewing to fully understand this one. Editing was a bit iffy. Everything was aces, but just too many cards in the deck.6-14-17 2nd viewing proved quite hard to bear -- the slowness is just way way way too too. I forced myself to watch it all....had to just to see if the story did actually tie the knots. Quite the bitter sad tale. The beauty was still there in force, but, sheesh.Not suggesting I watch this for at least years from now.

First the negative, I am just tired of having to read subtitles. I am a big fan of martial arts films with over 300 in my collection but as I get older it is more difficult for me to keep up with the speed of the subtitles and I am forced to reduce the picture size so that the words are not cut off. This film is more about mysticism than anything else. Now having said that, the scenery and colors are captivating and the skills displayed are also remarkable. For the female audience there is a love story with several twist and turns. There is the classic separation between a man and a woman because of their respective places in society. It is an entertaining film on several levels and a storyline that is worth following if you can keep up. The flashbacks are well done to help move the story along nicely.

Great storyline and makes you wish that you were blind and had Zhao Wei as your lover ... but both female leads play their dual roles very well

I have watch alto on movies lately due to the "shelter in place" and this movie surprised me with the quality and depth of material. The story, script, performances and special effects were very good. Even though it was sub titled I could follow the plot. It presents tradition and cult of the human demon relationships.. This movie presented blurred nature of human or demon motives excellently I recommended highly.

simplistic story line, good amount of CGI , meh kind of action .. not worth it ..

Good

Still half heart broken by the first movie. I got subdued again by Hua Pi (Painted Skin). The center trio is back, but later and only Xun Zhou as an immortal demon plays the same character. Even by keeping the same storyline, being introduced to the new characters with the same excellence as Hua Pi 1, I got into this supenatural love / redemption story. A new character I found amazing was the female bird demon (Mi Yang), she's so great discovering the human world and feelings. The Tianlang are a bit ridiculous but they're so insane and bloodthirsty they fit as villains.Vicky Zhao has some subtle charisma allowing her a wide range of emotions and characters, and here plays a wounded princess having to face dire circumstances.

First of all, the BluRay disc I have offers very sharp images. This is important for a film like this because the visual carries a lot of weight. And speaking of the visual, we are talking about colorful (and at times outlandish) constumes, impressive landscape, feminine sexuality by two beautiful women, and some pretty good CGI. The fighting scenes, often done in slow motion, are fairly impressive.The story is fairly complex and based on the forbidden love between two pairs of lovers. It came from an old collection of Chinese fable/ghost stories called Liao Zhai where you read about ghosts, fox fairies (some good and some bad) and their interaction, often leading to love and sex, with humans. Painted Skin is based on one of these stories.As I did with films like 'Pan's Labyrinth', I left the real world behind to immerse myself in this world of twisted love, loyalty, cruelty, kindness and visual feast for a little over two hours. Wow, what a trip! The real world is now so mundane and boring by comparison.

The second in a series, but it stands well on its own. These are big Chinese productions and look really gorgeous in BLu Ray. The story has elements of the "Chinese Ghost Story" trilogy without being related to it. These have spirit-vampires and huge armies, not to mention ravishing women!

great martial arts movie and sequel to the original painted skin starring Donnie Yen this US import blu ray is region free and works on UK blu ray players.