The Sorcerer And The White Snake

Ching Siu Tung

The story: The White Snake spirit (Eva Huang) takes on human form to be with the man she loves, the herbalist Xu Xian (Raymond Lam). Meanwhile, her soul sister, Green Snake (Charlene Choi), strikes up a friendship with the monk Neng Ren (Wen Zhang). White Snake’s true identity is found out by Neng Ren’s sorcerer teacher Fa Hai (Jet Li), whose mission is to subdue all demons.

While cautionary tales of entanglements between humans and spirits are not uncommon, what is unusual about the White Snake legend is that she is genuinely in love with Xu Xian rather than just out to sink her teeth into him.

Indeed, it is Fa Hai who comes off badly as he is unyielding in his simplistic dogmatic belief that humans and demons can never be together.

Director Ching Siu Tung had explored some of these elements in A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) to great success and it makes sense for him to take on this project. Unfortunately, his idea of updating this story is to bombard the audience with computer-generated imagery.

Worse, the CGI landscape looks decidedly fake. Instead of conjuring up believable other-worldly vistas as in Storm Warriors (2009), Ching creates what looks like epic battles of a video game. Sure, some bits may look cool but the overall effect is alienating.

Then there are the other questionable uses of CGI. In their reptilian form, White Snake and Green Snake are given breasts. The anatomically incorrect sight is ludicrous – and wouldn’t bosoms just get in the way of snakes slithering about?

Even more ridiculous is the decision to include cutesy CGI critters such as a talking mouse, tortoise and rabbit. Every time the creatures appear, this jarringly turns into a film that seems to be targeted at kids.

It would have taken some tremendous acting from the cast to rise above this and this was not the case.

Lam is blandly insipid as Xu Xian, turning what should be a passionate and moving love with Huang’s White Snake into a tepid affair.

Li is mostly stoic as the single-minded Fa Hai and his usually reliable action scenes are swallowed up in a sea of CGI.

The supporting characters gamely shore up the film. In particular, Wen left an impression as the tragicomic Neng Ren and his bittersweet relationship with Choi’s Green Snake was affecting.

Too bad the movie as a whole has no bite.

(ST)