Painted Skin

[Bravery]

Painted Skin tells the story of an evil spirit who falls in love with a human man who is married. The married mans wife then finds and recieves help in the form of ghost hunters.

I don't know where to begin, while not a bad movie, far from it, something was off in the pacing. By the end of the film, I felt as though I had sat through a 2 hour movie. It speeds through at certain points and moves too slow at other times. The movie never seems to find its pace.

This movie does a lot of things well, decent acting(Donnie Yen is constantly getting better and Vick Zhao Wei steals this movie), a few decently staged fights, and a couple of tug at your heart moments. But, it does a few things wrong. I mentioned the pacing. This movie, at heart, wants to be a suspense thriller. In order to do that, it must thrill the viewer at some point in the film. Painted Skin doesn't hide anything, and that hurts this movie. If the movie is going to be a thrilling, fantasy, suspense mystery, it shouldn't give away the plot too early, and it should slowly reveal it's mystery to the viewer. The movie at certain points drags on and tends to try too many things on screen at once with it's plot, almost giving it away.

It also seems as though they were trying to make a great movie, nothing wrong with that, but when you watch a movie and the actors seem like they're trying, then it can hurt the story.

By the end of this movie, I never felt satisfied enough, I only felt like I watched a 2 hour movie. I know the movie is two hours, but I don't want to notice the time, I just want to enjoy the movie.

I did enjoy the movie, just not as much as I could or should have.


7 out of 10

[xianzai]

Worth watching, but the movie can't decide what kind of film it wants to be, and not in the enjoyable mishmash of genres way of classic HK films. In one film, we have bits of:

Crime-fighting buddy movie
"It's complicated" love quadrangle movie
Mannered supernatural horror movie
Wuxia movie

All of which grind against one another instead of meshing. If they'd replaced Donnie Yen and other male lead with Jet Li and Shawn Yue, I think the movie would have had a better chance of carrying off the fractured material.

[Bravery]

Yeah, it was all over the place, never seemed to know what they were wanting this film to be until. Instead of shooting a movie, I sometimes felt like I was watching scenes that were placed together.

As for Yen, I think his acting is getting better, he still seems as though he's trying to turn in a great performance by memorizing lines instead of just reacting to his fellow actors. But, he is definatly getting better, I just wish he'd stop taking himself so seriously and go with the flow.

[xianzai]

As for Yen, I think his acting is getting better, [....]I just would have preferred for the two female leads to have been paired with actors as good as they were. Yen's acting hasn't ruined a movie for me, nor has it impressed me. Maybe his Ip Man performance will be good.

But going back to Painted Faces, did Donnie Yen look a bit orange in the film?

[Delirious]

I thought everything was orange-ish except for Zhou Xun's body. It was a fun movie to serve its purpose: pleasing hungry fans.

[Milkyway]

I enjoyed the movie but overall wasn't impressed much. Acting and cast were def good but I was very disgusted by the cinematography, music scoring, cg and action (what a waste for Donnie), thought those ruined the potentials of the movie being an otherwise great movie.

Donnie, as some of you here have stated, is getting more impressive in acting (I did see a bit of his usual improvisation when acting but that's easily forgiven imo) and he will no doubt deliver 100% with Ip Man (reviews are getting greater than I expected!).

[Bravery]

I just would have preferred for the two female leads to have been paired with actors as good as they were. Yen's acting hasn't ruined a movie for me, nor has it impressed me. Maybe his Ip Man performance will be good.

But going back to Painted Faces, did Donnie Yen look a bit orange in the film?

LOL, yeah I did notice that orange hue. I assume it was makeup, Donnie Yen does try to be a pretty boy.

I enjoyed the movie but overall wasn't impressed much. Acting and cast were def good but I was very disgusted by the cinematography, music scoring, cg and action (what a waste for Donnie), thought those ruined the potentials of the movie being an otherwise great movie.

Donnie, as some of you here have stated, is getting more impressive in acting (I did see a bit of his usual improvisation when acting but that's easily forgiven imo) and he will no doubt deliver 100% with Ip Man (reviews are getting greater than I expected!).


I have high hopes for Ip Man, and I hope it doesn't disappoint. But, as you've said, i've not read one bad thing about it.