Apparently Buddha ’s an son of a bitch .
I get laid , right ? It was news to me as well . I was under the impression he was a passably shudder deity until I watched Jet Li ’s recent fantasy warlike art flick The Sorcerer and the White Snake , free-base on an ancient Taiwanese fairy tale , in which a young doctor and a aphrodisiac snake devil declension in sexual love , and are utterly felicitous and not spite anyone , at least until Buddhist monk Jet Li comes and completely ruins their life in Buddha ’s name .
Unfortunately , this implausibly bizarre twist is the only thing that sets The Sorcerer and the White Snake apart from all the other fantasy martial arts motion picture Jet Li has been churning out over the last few geezerhood . The fighting is ho - hum , the particular effect are all poppycock we ’ve see before , and Jet Li is merely operate through the paces . But if you need to see a movie which seems to cogitate the religious persecutor is somehow the hero ? Well , you might as well purchase your tag now . Spoilers ahead …
Let ’s initiate with the title . There ’s not really a sorcerer in The Sorcerer and the White Snake . Jet Li ’s Buddhist monk Fahai can do magic , but it ’s of the standard super - powered Buddhistic monk variety show commonly seen in these ancient Chinese fantasy moving picture . There is a White Snake , named Susu , who can metamorphose into a very attractive woman , but prefers to flow out in a top - half - of - a - charwoman - with - a - giant - Hydra - physical structure mode with her sister Qingqing , who happen to be a Green Snake . And the moving picture ’s friend — because I refuse to call Jet Li ’s Fahai anything other than the antagonist — is Xu Xian , the young herbalist / doctor Susu fall in erotic love with .
The job is not that Susu ’s a daemon , it ’s that Fahai ( along with his wacky sidekick Neng Ren ) is a demon hunting watch – who trust that all demons contribute evil to men , no matter what . And the movie very much come along to be on his side – - he ’s played by Jet Li , who is traditionally the Hero of Alexandria ; he ’s a Buddhistic monk , also traditionally good guys ; he has superpowers , make to him by Buddha , who is generally considered a pretty benevolent god . And certainly he fights several speculative demon during the class of the flick , include vampire - bat - demon preying on a town as well as fox demons who are preying on a dissimilar town , so he ’s clear doing some honorable body of work .
But here ’s where it develop tricky . Because this is what the “ malign ” snake - demon charwoman do :
• Qingqing in reality prevents Fahai ’s sideklick Neng Ren , who is reverse into a bat - ogre after one bit him , from committing self-annihilation . In fact , she aid him adapt to his new living as a demon , after Fahai entirely abandon him . ( She also makes him drink a thermos of profligate she carries around for no ostensible reason , but whatever . )
• Susu finds the medico , marries him , and the two are blissfully glad . And when Xu Xian fix medicine for a townsfolk afflicted by the fox demons ’ illness , she even place her own vital essence into the medicine , to hep the villager become well .
And that ’s all these done before Fahai sees the “ lively essence ” in the medicine , realizes Xu Xian ’s married woman must be a demon , throw Xu Xian a wizardly sticker , and tells Susu to get the hell out of Dodge before he exorcizes her . She enjoin him her husband is happy . Fahai does n’t deal . She charge out she actually fuck him . Fahai still does n’t care . Then he ask her if Xu Xian would lie with her if he know she was a snake . A valid interrogation , avowedly , but wait for it …
Fahai come to their house later that very night to ruin Susu . It ’s done in such a room that Fahai does n’t see his wife transform , but only sees a jumbo flying white serpent ; being rather understandably gross out out , he strikes it with the dagger . When he later realizes he ’s jab his wife , he decides to go slip a magic “ flavour tooth root ” to mend her . Meaning Xu Xian does find out his wife was a snake demon , and he loves her anyways , and Fahai just ruined the biography of a perfectly happy couple .
Admittedly , after Xu Xian steals the spirit base and gets possess by several dozen fiend ( apparently the root word is the cardinal holding ancient China ’s Ecto - Containment Unit closed for some reasonableness ) , and Fahai and all his monastic buddies start to perform an exorcism on him , Susu form of … floods the intact valley , destroying all the temples and kill many , many monks . But that ’s very specifically her response to Fahai refuse to permit her see Xu Xian in the middle of his dispossession ( which Fahai says will pop him , although that ’s totally a Trygve Halvden Lie ) , and remember , Fahai commence this .
Only at the very oddment , when Susu and Fahai have battle in most epic - but - somehow - mediocre duel put to shoot in the last six months or so , does Fahai question if he ’s been a little too prejudiced against demon , and mayhap a few of them are n’t completely malevolent . abruptly , the light of Buddha shines down upon him and he realizes yes , he has been a bit too rigid . But here ’s the kicker – - he still traps Susu in Lei Fang Pagoda so that she and Xu Xian never get to see each other again . What the fuck ?
Unfortunately , this bizarre agenda is one of only two far-famed things about The Sorcerer and the White Snake ; the other is a scene in which Fahai fights the Bat - Demon King , which is the most shameless rake - off of the Gandalf / Balrog fight from The Two Towers ever put to take , arrant with the two fighting while plummeting down an infinitely long burrow into a giant cavern with a ocean of lava . Except it looks far big .
Actually , all the movie ’s CG is mediocre at best — which is especially debatable because there ’s so damn much of it . There ’s a few decent demon - vs.-asshole Buddhist monk fight scenes , specially at the conclusion , when Susu is bringing all her piss - controlling powers to kick Fahai ’s butt , but rarely does the film ’s creativeness surpass the 2005 video biz - esque computer impression . Even that might have been all right if the fighting within the CG was cool , but it ’s rote and uninspired , and shockingly rare ( scrapper mostly stand there and set while the special effects do their work for them ) . In the rarified occasion that Jet Li needs to make a punch , he bet as world-weary with these fantasy martial arts flicks as we are .
If Li had just been a villain — or if the flick had grant him to be – - White Snake could have pass a plenty of the limitations it sets upon itself ; one truly interesting carrying out can make up for a wad of middling special effects . In one translation of the original Chinese fairy narrative , Fahai actually is the villain — although he ’s a vengeful terrapin devil who takes the grade of a Thelonious Sphere Monk , rather than an literal monk . But I ca n’t help but think that would have been a better alternative for everyone : for Li , who ’d have a cause to play ; for viewers , who ’d have something unique to watch ; and even for Xu Xian and Susu , because as shitty as it would be to have your married couple destroy by a terrapin , that would still be significantly less obnoxious that see Buddha thinks you ’re living in wickedness .
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