A Chinese Fairy Tale

A remake, that confronts its own heritage, but doesn't dare to refuse it completely. It caught original visual style right and even could have exceeded that, but due to the plot, cinematography shines only in several scenes at the beginning and the end, and decreases to just a weird tilted horizon in the rest of the movie. Both acting and the story become far more tragical; the second brings up unnecessary complexity that serves badly to the characters, humor and the main idea itself.

Reasons you might watch this: Wilson Yip’s direction: No. Too many dutch angles, spinning, and excessive superimposition mangle it. Any of the cast: No. They’re all betrayed by the poor plot and messy cinematography. Love of the original: There’s no genre blending, no passion, the effects look bad and lack imagination…I could go on, but I prefer to let things suck on their own without overly comparing them to previous adaptations. Anyway you look at it, A Chinese Fairy Tale is lesser

Arguably unnecessary, but utterly gorgeous.