Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (2015)

"I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good." 'Faust'-Goethe

To watch Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal it would help to have a working knowledge of the Chinese legend of Zhong Kui. Which I didn't. And this movie tended to enter facts not in evidence which could make a confusing viewing for a novice. In the end it didn't matter too much because the storyline was thin. Very thin.

First off, I'll drop two things on the table about me and this movie. First, I am a Chen Kun fan and watched this mainly for him. Second, the CGI in this movie was terrible, slow, shoddy, cheap video game quality for the most part. And there was a lot of it, overwhelming any story the writers might have wanted to tell. As much as I love Chen Kun, even he couldn't save this movie from the weight of the CGI department.

Every thousand years demons can reincarnate into a human, god, or back to a demon depending on their moral checklist hidden within the Dark Crystal, which can also hold the 7 spirits of people. Chen as Zhong Kui steals the Dark Crystal for Zhang Daoxian (Winston Chao), a low level god tasked with keeping the realms from erupting into chaos. With his magic bat fan Zhong can turn into an enormous demon with the power to vanquish other demons. After the theft of the Dark Crystal, several female demons come calling to try and steal it back. Low and behold one of the them is Snow Girl (the gorgeous Li Bing Bing), Zhong's old lover. This causes a crisis for both of them which is further complicated when Zhong learns more of his origin story. Something I've learned from watching Cdramas, not all demons are bad and not everyone from the heavenly realm is good. The social hierarchy and ambitions therein exist in all the realms.

This could have been a beautiful, tragic love story. Unlike many Chinese movies, this one had the steamiest scenes I've seen, which could be attributed more to the chemistry between Chen and Li than any skinship. The filmmakers instead over-relied on flashbacks and their CGI creations to carry the movie which resulted in an emotionless, colorful mess. Chen, Li, and Chao did their best with the limitations constricting them. Most of the secondary characters were largely forgettable.

Even with the bad CGI, if the filmmakers had trusted their stars and developed their characters better this could have been a far more entertaining and moving film.



9/3/22

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A great show for kids...of all ages!

Many of the online reviews kick this movie for the CGI not being "up to par" for 2015...

Most people watching a show like this are not critiqing the CGI, but simply want to see CGI that works for this particular movie. I liked the CGI here because it seeemd to 'work' for this movie!

Another critic critcized the movie for putting a handsome man playing the part of Zhong Kui...

Do you really want to scare off all the women watching the movie?

I often crticize movies for not being historically accurate, but this is a fable/myth/fairy tale/whatever, not history.

If you read the works of the (late) great mythologist Joseph Campbell, myths change with time and need of the audience, and more likely change over thousands of years of time.

Even if you know the original myth, does it hurt Zhong Kui beng less ugly than a couple of thousand s of years ago?

I found the movie refreshing, entertaining, and only a couple of places did it really show any gore (blood), so most audiences should be entertained by this movie without too much complaint.

Forget if the CGI may not be up to Hollywood standards, this CGI made you believe that the actions were actually taking place!

The main and support cast all seemed to work well together to bring about a good movie and only in one scene did I not think that the main leads may not be sincere, but that was just before the action hit its apogee and I forgot about it.

The cinematography was good, and I liked the angle changes on some scenes.

All in all, I think it is a movie that kids of all ages can watch and re-watch again, and enjoy themselves doing it!

Let the critics watch some ugly guy in another movie....


RE-WATCH VALUE: Yes!

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