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I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Pretty Good

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Ever since his early "Dragon Inn" days, Donnie Yen has had a commanding screen presence. In his more recent movies, he always plays himself - strong, violent, a believer in rough justice - and he always delivers great action scenes. He's the only reason to watch this film to the end. He makes the most of his screen time, which regrettably is not anywhere near as much as one wishes.The film is chugging along great when about halfway through, it just abruptly runs out of plot. In order to fill the remaining time, the actors suddenly start moving and talking incredibly slowly. I thought there was something wrong with my computer. It has to be seen to be believed. Donnie Yen is the only one immune to this strange infection, but sadly, he is not permitted to carry the film by himself.

"Painted Skin" draws you in with it's recognizable list of performers (Vicki Zhao, Xun Zhao, Donnie Yen) and gives off an air of mystique with its movie posters and unique storyline. Loosely based on the classic Chinese short story "Strange Stories From A Chinese Studio, "Painted Skin" revolves around a female demon that feeds off of human hearts to retain its human like skin. The movie takes liberty to add several of its own plot twists, the major one being a Gothic love triangle of sorts with the demon's desire to win the heart of General Wang and take the place of his wife. Ending gets pretty emotional. There is no vampires in the movie and it isn't a gory horror flick. It's one of the best Asian flicks I seen! In other words, "Painted Skin" is light years better than "An Empress and the Warriors" and proudly untypical from the flood of Chinese epic period pieces we have seen this year. One of China's most versatile actresses, Zhou is good at switching between Xiao Wei's evil and goody-goody sides. The characters are quite engaging, the acting is solid, and the action is exciting. Better yet, the fighting scenes doesn't go on and on for a million light years as with most Asian films. The mood shifts, dancing around between drama, fantasy, demonic, and melodramatic romance. Very entertaining and mesmerizing! I couldn't get enough and started to watch it again and again. I'm glad I ignored bad reviews and took a chance on this! It's definitely not one to be missed by lovers of Asian films!

I recently saw this at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. I didn't know quite what to expect of it but being Hong Kong's official entry to the 81st Acadmy Awards I thought it may be of some value. This film is adapted from the 300 year old classic ghost story of Song Ling Pu and is a combination of historical romance, supernatural and martial arts from director Gordon Chan who also wrote the screenplay along with Abe Kwong and Lau Ho Leung with action scenes directed by Wei Tung. Yong (Donnie Yen) is China's best warrior. His former love Peirong (Wei Zhao) is now married to Wang Sheng (Ken Chen) the commander of the armies. In a raid on desert bandits the beautiful Xiao Wei is taken into the armies custody and she takes a liking to Wang Sheng but Peirong stands in her way. Mysterious grizzly deaths start happening and soon Xia-Bing (Betty Sun) a tough female hunter of demons shows up. Xiao Yi (David Leong) is the mysterious supernatural companion to the beautiful but deadly Xiao Wei. This is an entertaining story and makes for a great debut film for director Chan. Great cinematography from Arthur Wong and a great visual setting from the art department of art director bill Liv and production designer Chung Man Yee. A co-production of Hong Kong with China and Singapore it's a little drawn out but worth seeing. I would give it a 7.5 and recommend it.

Tagline: Revoking the days of A Chinese Ghost Story… Review by Neo: The ultra screen beauty of the early 1990s was undeniably the ambassador of ghost/romance movies, Joey Wong. Its been a long time coming since those comedy/spooky/ghostly/romance/action genre. The good news is that The Painted Skin's ability to revoke those kind of unique feelings, while the end product may not be the same. That's not to say The Painted Skin is not a good movie, as the current reviewer thoroughly enjoyed the ride, but in the end, it just feels a little too forgettable. Carried by the consistently good actress in Zhou Xun (who have now developed a reputation for being head and shoulder above her given material) who attempts to follow the foot step of Joey Wong and adding to the pot of fire is an equally impressive return to form by Vicky Xiao Wei. Perhaps the downside is easily Alloy Chen (Playboy Cops) who appears to be miscasted in a role born to be played by say, Liu Ye (Connected). Adding to the mix is the overacting of Donnie Yen (who is intentionally funny by overacting, rather than in Seven Swords where his limited emotional range became more laughable than all the jokes added up together in that flick.In many ways, Painted Skin feels like The Promise, it allows the audience to totally disband their beliefs and escape into another world, namely a "dream". While Neo was one of the few people who actually liked the uneven and largely acclaimed "disappointment", The Promise. The Painted Skin fares even between and sometimes it is just fun to live within a dream. Perhaps fans of action cinema would have expected more, as one would expect in a Donnie Yen's flick. In fact, this isn't a Donnie Yen film where he grins, kicks ass and ultimately kick more asses, but rather, at its core, a love story, a light hearted genre mixture of action, ghosts and comedy. Quite simply revoking those days when movies like A Chinese Ghost Story are still in existence. Then again, when a movie leaves you thinking about Joey Wong, it really can't be half bad.There is no doubt that Mainland starlet, Zhou Xun is a shinning star. Ever since Neo first associated with Zhou Xun in Fruit Chan's Hollywood Hong Kong, he knew that there was something special and her display in Peter Chan's Perhaps Love enhanced her reputation to mainstream Hong Kong cinema. Although Zhou Xun does not possess the sweetest voice, her vocal is distinctive, easily recognizable and really something of an acquired taste. Her looks are pretty, but pale in-comparsion to compatriot Fan Bing Bing. Still her acting, her screen chemistry, her sheer screen presence makes Zhou Xun easily one of the better actress in Hong Kong cinema now. Here, she performs to perfection, the cross between humanity and evil, and her ability to allow the audience to sympathesis with her character is not something that everyone can achieve. Cliché and cheesy as the finale may seem to be, the current reviewer is leaning towards liking it.If there is one aspect about reviewing movies that Neo enjoys is the part where he gets to talk about performances. I fondly remember way back in 2005, Koma provided a moment for two acting queens in Karena Lam and Angelica Lee and likewise, Painted Skins goes head to head with Zhou Xun and Zhao Wei. The Shaolin Soccer girl (Zhao Wei) performs more than admirably and certainly a triumphant return to form. In arguably a much more difficult role than her counterpart, she still manages to engage the audience and maintain some believability within the dream.Donnie Yen has come a long way since those Shanghai Affairs and Legend of the Wolf days, but it is not surprising that while his screen presence has increased dramatically, the same cannot be said about his acting. Luckily, The Painted Skin does not require Yen to act and the result is one of Yen's better comedic display in recent years. Remember the time when Yen tried to emotes in Seven Swords, it was unintentionally laughable, here, Yen deliberately overacts and the effect is the audience laughing with him, rather than at him. As for Alloy Chen, it just goes without saying that he still have a few notches behind the girls. Perhaps his good looks overshadowed his already non-existent performance. While it is adequate, there are not sparks and his chemistry with Zhao Wei comes up lacking. Fearless's Betty Sun makes her second film and passes with flying colours. Her lively performance, brighten up the film in all corners and somehow manages to romance with the "non-romance-able" Donnie Yen.All in all, Painted Skin ends up being good cinema, due largely to the performances of the two leading actresses. There is no doubt that Skin gains even more sympathy points for alluding to those early 90s genre movies. So what's wrong with Painted Skin, maybe you can argue about the lack of action, lack of a storyline or even the believability factor. However, Neo seems to think otherwise, as Painted Skin feels like a dream. Not entirely a successful movie, but certainly any movie that reminds the current reviewer of the sheer beauty of Joey Wong, really can't be too bad… (Neo 2009) I rate it 7.5/10www.thehkneo.com