Mmmmm!! We’re back in familiar territory with this one. Period story… check. Tragically complicated romantic triangles….. check. Lots of Kung-Fu wirework and swordplay….. check. Melodramatic ending with lots of teary romance…. check. Oh!!… and ghosts too!!…. or at least demons!! Yay!! Yep…. Neko’s been looking soooo forward to this one.
Based upon the classic Chinese literature Liao Zhai, I had been a bit worried that the more supernatural aspects might have been removed given the recent films out of Hong Kong which have fallen victim to Bejing’s aversion to ” unnecessarily promoting a belief in superstition among the masses”. I can tell you, thankfully, that is definitely NOT the case……
The synopsis reads as follows: “During the Chin and Han era, Commander Wang Sheng ( Chen Kun) leads his troops in a raid on bandits in the desert, in the process he rescues a beautiful woman and brings her back with them. However he has no idea that this woman, Xiao Wei ( Zhou Xun), is in fact a fox spirit in human form. Xiao Wei needs a regular supply of human hearts to maintain her human form, and the task falls on her helper Xiao Yi ( Qi Yu Wu)–a chameleon who’s also taken on human form and has the special ability to camouflage into the environment he is in. To prove his love and devotion to Xiao Wei, he carries out a spate of murders in order to provide her with human hearts; this terrorizes the whole city.
Meanwhile, Xiao Wei has fallen in love with Wang Sheng, after being impressed with his gallant attempt in rescuing her. She keeps trying to seduce Wang in an effort to steal him from his wife Pei Rong (Vicki Zhao). Pei Rong finds out about Xiao Wei’s feeling for her husband; she also discovers that Xiao Wei is not human, so she secretly approaches martial expert Pang Yong ( Donnie Yen) and demon Catcher Xia Bing ( Sun Li) for help…
Subsequently a drama unfolds that delves into intricate emotions and relationships between man and demon, love and passion, loyalty and temptation, treachery and integrity, ending in a finale with surprising twist.”
So….. have we got a winner here? Well, if you are a regular visitor here at the ol’ Litterbox, you just know you gotta “Read On” to find out!