Review of Painted Skin (1993) by Naoya K — 27 Aug 2009
King Hu's 11th and the last feature. An occult action based on the book of Chinese traditional ghost stories which "Touch of Zen" is also based on. As King Hu states, it is not as good as other works of him, mainly because of the lack of fund and cutting done by studio without Hu's admission (1.
5 hrs supposed to be 2 hrs). Also as he states, in the second half of the film, it's just obviously out of money and cannot help but look cheap, although it surely has the touch of King Hu (He does as much as he can in the hard situation).
Joey Wang is not so impressive, but Sammo Hung who plays a serious role (a Tao-master) looks fresh. Will we ever have a chance to see the director's cut (even tho Hu's not alive) of this one? (I doubt very much).
This review of Painted Skin (1993) was written by Naoya K on 27 Aug 2009.
Painted Skin has generally received mixed reviews.
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