King Hu at BAM: Painted Skin

Somehow, they are both based on Pu Songling’s short stories, but you would be hard pressed to find many similarities between King Hu’s final film and the smash hit Chinese cinema and television franchise of the same name. At least the casting made sense when Zhou Xun succeeded Joey Wong as the supernatural femme fatale with the detachable face. A foolish scholar will get more than he bargained for when he takes in a mystery woman in King Hu’s Painted Skin, which screens during BAM Cinématek’s retrospective, All Hail the King: the Films of King Hu.

Wang Hsi-tzu realizes he might have stayed out too late drinking when he starts seeing strange spectral visions on his way home. Nevertheless, he gets a sudden dose of courage when he encounters You Feng. Moved by claims she was badly abused by her husband’s first wife, Wang takes her into his household, much to the annoyance of his own wife. He may have yet to pass an imperial exam, but even Wang quickly realizes there is something a little off about You.

When confronted by a charm provided by two Taoist priests, You admits she is a ghost, trapped between worlds and held in thrall to the King of Yin and Yang. Half ghost, half man, the evil king commands a death cult of similarly in-between spirits. To escape his power, You will need more help than Wang can provide, she sets off in the company of the two priests, to find a legendary high priest, living a hermit like existence tending peach trees.

Without question, the first third of Painted is by far the most effective. Hu defty creates an eerie nocturnal atmosphere and a metaphysically scary villain. In contrast, the subsequent fantasy quest sequences feel more conventional, even though he nicely conveys the notion that the conflict is joined on both physical and spiritual levels. Still, the conclusion is quite redemptive, in every sense.

Granted, Wong does not have the strongest reputation as a thesp, but when it comes to looking like a doe-eyed lost little girl, she was tough to beat. Likewise, Wang is a great role for Adam Cheng, giving him license to ham it up in two directions. Even though his scenes do not have as much pop, there is no denying Sammo Hung has the appropriate heft, so to speak, for the high priest.

Painted Skin is a relatively minor entry in Hu’s filmography, but it is still a consistently entertaining supernatural wuxia fusion. Indeed, many of his prestigious filmmaker colleagues have ended their careers on weaker codas. Recommended as a ghostly outing in its own right and indispensible for BAM’s retrospective, Painted Skin screens this coming Tuesday (6/10) in Brooklyn, as part of the perfectly named All Hail the King film series.

Butterfly Swords: Yeoh, Yen, and Leung Bring the Wuxia

Who would you rather have your butt kicked by, 2012 NYAFF Star Asia award winner Donnie Yen, Michelle “The Lady” Yeoh, or Tony Leung?  Leung would probably be the safest choice.  You certainly would not pick Yeoh, if you know what’s good for you.  She is characteristically lethal and rather Machiavellian, but also unexpectedly vulnerable in Michael Mak’s Butterfly Swords, which Well Go USA releases today on DVD.

Once fellow street urchins, Meng Sing-wan, Lady Ko, and Yip Cheung have become the top assassins of the Happy Forest martial arts alliance.  Lady Ko is the brains of the operation, reporting directly to Eunuch Tsao.  Unfortunately, her patron is not long for this earth.  As his nearly dying wish, he asks Ko to retrieve a document proving the conspiracy between a rival eunuch and the rebellious Estates Villa martial arts faction.

Tiring of the assassin’s life, Meng wants to settle down with Butterfly, the daughter of a reformed martial artist.  As far as she knows, he is just a humdrum businessman, who happens to know an awful lot about weapons.  However, since the fate of the empire is at stake, he agrees to go undercover with the Estates Villas.  Ko is supposed to look after Butterfly while he is on assignment, but she rarely holds up her end of the bargain.  Even though Meng considers her “Sister” Ko, she has always carried a torch for her not-really brother.  Likewise, Yip pines for her, but his feelings are definitely not reciprocated.

Given Meng and Ko’s status as sort-of but not really siblings, Butterfly Swords has an odd vaguely Tennessee Williams-V.C. Andres vibe that sets in apart from other wuxia swordplay spectacles.  While consistently preposterous, many of the action sequences choreographed by Ching Siu-tung are quite inventive, particularly a gravity-defying melee atop a bamboo forest (remember, those trees bend but do not break).  The exposition is brief, yet confusing.  However, the longing triangle of Ko, Meng, and Yip works surprisingly well.

The lynchpin of the film is unquestionably Yeoh.  She has some great action scenes with her decapitating scarf, but is also quite convincing expressing Lady Ko’s yearnings and insecurities.  Of the trio, Donnie Yen is probably the one short-changed for screen time as Yip, but he still has some decent drunken fight scenes.  Tony Leung does not have the same presence he would display in subsequent John Woo and Wong Kar-wai masterworks, but he develops some engaging chemistry with Yeoh and Joey Wong’s Butterfly, nonetheless.  It is also nice to see the latter in one of her final screen roles before she entered her semi-retirement (periodically interrupted by special return appearances), even if the character is a bit of a stock type.

Butterfly Swords is not a transcendent wuxia classic, but its willingness to go for broke is certainly entertaining.  Yet, its best moments are the relatively quiet ones.  Fans of Yeoh and Yen (and isn’t that just about everyone?) should enjoy checking it out on DVD, on-sale today (7/10) from Well Go USA, a company with offices in Texas, China, and Taiwan, so they ought to know and thing or two about brawls and beatdowns.