Oddly enough I have never gotten around to watching "Green Snake" (aka "Ching se") before 2016, despite being a huge fan of Maggie Cheung. But with hand on heart, then I can say that I hadn't been missing out on a masterpiece. Sure "Green Snake" was entertaining enough for what it was, but it just wasn't outstanding or particularly memorable.
The story is about two female snake spirits aspiring to become humans, and they are mingling with humans in order to learn how to become human. And a monk comes across the two snakes, learning about their nature and behavior, he must rectify their behavior in the eyes of Buddha.
The storyline was adequate, but I think you must be Chinese in order to fully appreciate the story and be familiar with the legend upon which director Tsui Hark based his movie. For a Westerner then "Green Snake" seemed a silly action comedy more than anything else.
What makes "Green Snake" work out on the screen is the acting talents that they had recruited for the movie. Joey Wang (playing White Snake) and Maggie Cheung (playing Green Snake) were really carrying the movie quite nicely and they were well-cast for the roles of the snakes-morphed-into-human-shape. Hsing-Kuo Wu (playing the scholar) was also adding a good amount to the movie with his performance. However, personally, then I can't claim to think that Wenzhuo Zhao (playing the monk) really had any good acting skill in this movie.
The effects in the movie were adequate for what the movie was, and taking into consideration that the movie is from 1993, then don't get your hopes up too high. The snakes were adequate, but the summoned fiery dragon was ludicrous to look at.
What did work for the movie was the transition between human and snake that the sisters had going on. There was a great sense of them actually being snakes in human bodies. And thumbs up to Tsui Hark, Maggie Cheung, Joey Wang and the special effects team on their accomplishments in order to make this believable.
If you are expecting a grand martial arts drama, then "Green Snake" will leave you sorely disappointed. This is not a martial arts movie, despite having some fighting sequences here and there. This is a fantasy drama movie based on a Chinese legend.
This 1993 movie is not really amongst the more impressive of movies to have been directed at the hand of Tsui Hark.
The story is about two female snake spirits aspiring to become humans, and they are mingling with humans in order to learn how to become human. And a monk comes across the two snakes, learning about their nature and behavior, he must rectify their behavior in the eyes of Buddha.
The storyline was adequate, but I think you must be Chinese in order to fully appreciate the story and be familiar with the legend upon which director Tsui Hark based his movie. For a Westerner then "Green Snake" seemed a silly action comedy more than anything else.
What makes "Green Snake" work out on the screen is the acting talents that they had recruited for the movie. Joey Wang (playing White Snake) and Maggie Cheung (playing Green Snake) were really carrying the movie quite nicely and they were well-cast for the roles of the snakes-morphed-into-human-shape. Hsing-Kuo Wu (playing the scholar) was also adding a good amount to the movie with his performance. However, personally, then I can't claim to think that Wenzhuo Zhao (playing the monk) really had any good acting skill in this movie.
The effects in the movie were adequate for what the movie was, and taking into consideration that the movie is from 1993, then don't get your hopes up too high. The snakes were adequate, but the summoned fiery dragon was ludicrous to look at.
What did work for the movie was the transition between human and snake that the sisters had going on. There was a great sense of them actually being snakes in human bodies. And thumbs up to Tsui Hark, Maggie Cheung, Joey Wang and the special effects team on their accomplishments in order to make this believable.
If you are expecting a grand martial arts drama, then "Green Snake" will leave you sorely disappointed. This is not a martial arts movie, despite having some fighting sequences here and there. This is a fantasy drama movie based on a Chinese legend.
This 1993 movie is not really amongst the more impressive of movies to have been directed at the hand of Tsui Hark.