combat escalation 101

[reverancepavane]

Quite enjoyed The Sorceror and the White Snake, although it does take some liberties with the classic folk tale. For example, the story focus (A plot) has been reversed and is now focused on the conflict between the sorceror (in this case a Buddhist demoncatcher abbot rather than the more traditional Taoist sorceror) and the White Snake spirit of the title. The forbidden romantic elements have been mostly relegated to the B plot (which enables the A plot). Meanwhile the other half of the former B-plot, being the interaction with her sister the Green Snake spirit has been relegated to a C-plot. All in all this makes the focus much more on the conflict between Abbot Fahin and White Snake (and the other demons that appear). While it does include some nice wuxia work (most prominent in the battle between the ice witch ["harpy"] and Fahin), being a conflict between mystical forces almost guarantees these days that most fight sequences will devolve into epic CGI battles, which is the case here. And they are especially epic. Interestingly, the Mandate of Heaven and the Celestial Court are conspicuous by their absence, so there can be no appeal or resolution of the conflict (beyond the obvious), which I feel does weaken the tale somewhat. This was an important aspect of the original Shaw Brothers version of the film (which did focus on the romance). [HK film makers of the time hadn't forgotten that the English term romances used to be tales of adventure themselves, and thus romance is an important aspect of these sorts of adventure tales, as they used to be in the Arthurian mythos. Now the focus is simply on the action, and in doing so they often miss the passion and reason to fight. Hollywood forgot about this a long time ago...] I have to admit I really liked Green Snake (Charlene Choi) in this film. Smart, funny, loyal, and very beautiful, it is little wonder the actress got top billing (at least in imdb). I really did enjoy her sub-plot with the monk. In other versions Green Snake tends to be portrayed a lot less sympathetically, even given to fits of jealous rage. Well worth seeing. Warning: contains Fox spirits. And again animators give the snakes prominent fangs. The Chinese snake is a constrictor; the mythical poisonous snake is considered a viper, and like all poisonous animal spirits is considered vermin. And Anonymous looks interesting. Elizabethan politics as relating to Shakespeare. Costumes look good.