ZHONG KUI: SNOW GIRL AND THE DARK CRYSTAL (钟馗伏魔：雪妖魔灵)

I have always been a fan of and look forward to watch chinese martial arts and fantasy movies but the ones I caught recently were usually very high on CGI graphics and lost the appeal of the original ones I used to see in the 90's. This one is no exception despite the movie starring one of my favourite chinese actor Chen Kun and one of the "bling blings", I mean Li Bingbing, alongside Winston Chao and Yang Zishan.

First, I have to comment on the bad translation in the title from Chinese to English. Snow girl they wrote but it was more snow demoness than anything. The settings are so full of CGI graphics, from the sceneries to the demons that were reminiscent of western movies like the Lord of the Rings. Gone are the forms of the spirits, demons and demoness (妖) that one often reads about and imagines in the chinese novels and watched in movies in earlier decades. 

One of the uniqueness of different cultures lie in their different interpretation and depiction of all common things including gods, deities, spirits, demons etc and the influence of western culture on chinese movie-making couldn't be more apparent in chinese movies of late. Food is one big area where the melting pot of eastern and western cultures create a slew of fusion cuisine where the original flavour of food worldwide is starting to taste similar. This is now happening to movies in the east and in my opinion, this is a regression of chinese movie-making and I am absolutely against it.

The movie focused on the story of the legendary demon-hunter 钟馗 in chinese fictional novels and how he met and fell in love with the snow demoness. Like many other storylines before this e.g. Madam White Snake, it told the tale of how a mortal and a demoness became hopelessly in love that not even all forces on the realms of heaven, earth and hell could tear them apart. With the help of their sister(s), the demoness went all out to sacrifice herself to save her man.

Chen Kun once again took on dual roles, where one was an androgynous demon and the other as the heavily bearded demon hunter who became part demon part human. Li Bingbing looked more like a bride in some scenes and it was so obvious that so much technical touch-up was done on her visibly aged face to make her look youthful, radiant and ethereal. Winston Chao looked more bloated than before too and his portrayal of a two-faced deity was quite comical.

So in all honesty, I didn't quite enjoy this movie.

Chen Kun as 钟馗

Li Bingbing as the bride, I mean Snow Demoness

the first encounter between the leads

Winston Chao, the prententious deity

sisters of the demonic world unite

the demon looked straight out from Lord of the Rings

a transformed half demon half human 钟馗

1911

This is Jackie Chan's 100th movie and marks a century since the Xinhai revolution in 1911 that forever changed the course of China's sovereign history and shaped it into what it is today as the People's Republic of China.

Produced and directed by Jackie Chan himself, I must admit I did not catch the movie because of the man himself. Instead, I was drawn by the historical events, including the downfall of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, and felt I could have a piece of my ancestry through this short two hours movie charting the events that occurred back in 1911 and 1912.

Starring a stellar cast including Jackie Chan, Winston Chao, Joan Chen, Li Bingbing, Jackie's son Jaycee Chan, Hu Ge, the movie started with the execution of the legendary revolutionary heroine Qiu Jin, who sacrificed her life to help the suppressed and long suffering commoners stand up against the corrupted Qing empire and feudalistic society.

The revolution, led by the famous Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing etc staged numerous uprisings to put an end to a long reign of Emperors, who ruled over the land and lived a life of luxury behind forbidden palaces as the commoners tolled and sweated their life away in poverty. Empress Dowager Longyu was coerced by Yuan Shikai and the new government to sign the abdication of the throne of her son Puyi, the last Emperor of China, that reduced them to citizens of the new republic and ended the imperial rule.


This event was a critical milestone in the history of China and the republic would not be what it is today without the few revolutionary leaders who believed in dedicating their entire lives to fight for its people to overcome poverty, inequality etc.


I must admit that we are very fortunate not to have been born during that era where there were rampant wars, uprisings, revolutions etc that resulted in countless deaths of innocent lives. We must count our lucky stars that there is a lot more political stability all over the world and be grateful for what we have in this day and age. Not everyone, especially those from the past, can have a life as good as ours.