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Painted Skin

Painted Skin

Fantasy · Action · Drama · 2008

Painted Skin is based on one of Pu Songling's classic short stories in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Zhou Xun stars as Xiao Wei, a fox spirit that feasts on human hearts in order to maintain her lovely, youthful appearance. When General Wang Sheng (Chen Kun) 'rescues' her from a band of bandits and brings her home, trouble brews as the demon falls in love with the general.

Movie details

Painted Skin

2008 Fantasy · Action · Drama 1h 43m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.0 / 10

Community rating

Painted Skin is based on one of Pu Songling's classic short stories in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Zhou Xun stars as Xiao Wei, a fox spirit that feasts on human hearts in order to maintain her lovely, youthful appearance. When General Wang Sheng (Chen Kun) 'rescues' her from a band of bandits and brings her home, trouble brews as the demon falls in love with the general.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Painted Skin?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Gordon Chan

Written by

Gordon Chan · Lau Ho-Leung · Abe Kwong Man-Wai

Donnie Yen

Donnie Yen

Pang Yong

Zhou Xun

Zhou Xun

Xiao Wei

Chen Kun

Chen Kun

Wang Sheng

Zhao Wei

Zhao Wei

Pei Rong

Sun Li

Sun Li

Xia Bing

Qi Yuwu

Qi Yuwu

Xiao Yi / Lizard Demon

Jin Song

Jin Song

Gao Xiang

Court is in session

Put Painted Skin on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.