White Snake

This adaptation of an ancient Chinese folk tale by director Amy Wong and Zhao Ji is more of a realistic puppetry drama than in its previous screen attempts. Basically a simple tale of humans trying to appease their emperor by collecting snakes to give him eternal life by fueling his Taoist powers crafted into a modern day Marvel-ized Lady Snowblood assassination parable when a mysterious young girl is sent by the Snake Demons to stop this from happening. Of course, Blanca (the white snake) falls madly in love with Xuan, a snake hunter. Plagued in the past by China’s outdated concepts and technology, this is more on par with Dreamworks, full of Maxfield Parrish-esque backgrounds and floating flora swirls while panoramic fight sequences fill the frame.

[NR]