Painted Skin
I went to KLCC's TGV for a movie last night. It felt like a decade since I last stepped my foot on KLCC's ground mainly because I have this perception that KLCC is too far away from where I am staying and working; and that I would have to brave through the horrendous traffic jams to get there. Well.. I was not the one driving there last night and with 80% (probably) of KL folks already back to their 'kampung's for Raya, it was okay.
We went there to watch "Painted Skin". Apparently KLCC is the only cineplex that is showing the Mandarin version. As most of the cast members are Mandarin speaking, we thought Mandarin version would be more "authentic". We later found out that it really didn't matter whether it's Mandarin or Cantonese version.
I think 10 minutes through the show, I was already yawning away. There were just too much of dialogues, scenes were transitioned from one to another almost abruptly and the effects looked fake!
What made it worse was that there were these 2 idiots at the back of us doing commentaries to each other throughout the movie. All the shhh's in the world didn't seem to shut them up. Besides that, at least 8 people's phones rang throughout the show. Instead of turning their phones off, they answered the call and chatted away! I thought KLCC patrons would be better educated in human decency than that. I was so wrong!
Anyway, "Painted Skin" is a film adapted from one of the stories in an ancient novel written by Pu SongLing. This novel is a collection of supernatural tales about spirits, ghosts, scholars, exorcists, etc. "Painted Skin" is the story about the vixen spirit (Wu Li Jing).
The beautiful Zhou Xun (from "Love Perhaps" and "The Banquet") played this character. I thought she did pretty well in bringing out the pretend-innocent, cunning and evil side of the vixen spirit.
Another good acting came from Zhao Wei who played the wife of the man the vixen spirit was trying to seduce. She played the character so vulnerable and I was amazed how easily tears can just flow down from her eyes.
As on why the title "Painted Skin", I have this question myself. Perhaps it's from this part of the movie where the vixen spirit took off her human skin and started to paint on the skin.
Well in short... other than the strong acting from these 2 lead actresses, I found there is really nothing left to be desired from this movie. I wished I could have my refund...
