The movie opens with the wise Fahai (Jet Li) and his young deciple, Neng Ren (Zhang Wen) who find themselves in a vast world of snow and ice after walking through a magical gate. They are monks who are also hunters that cleanse the world from demons. These demons can take the shape of animals both small and beastly but they are not all evil.
In the wooded mountains, there are many supernatural beings including two beautiful women with their lower halves in the form of snakes. The white snake is a 1,000 year old reptilian demon named Susu (Eva Huang) and her devilish, emerald colored sister is named Qingqing (Charlene Choi). While relaxing in the woods, they see a group of men led by a young medicine maker Xu Xian (Raymond Lam) to find herbs for the town where they live. Susu becomes very interested in him but her sister decides to change into a snake and kill him for fun while he’s scaling a cliff. He falls to the water below and begins to drowned while unconscious under the water. Susu hurries to him, gives him part of her life force to revive him and he falls in love with her human form. She later meets Xu Xian at a festival where they fall in love with each other and they later marry. The story is set around the love story between the two.
The film is based on an ancient Chinese legend telling the story of a man and a white snake falling in love. There are some scenes where the CGI is a little weak for where technology is at the moment. The overall feeling is deep in fantasy with a lot of wire work martial arts. The fights have characters flying in the air and magic against magic that almost have a Lord of The Rings feel with the heavy use of green screen. It’s directed by Ching Siu-Tung and he’s also directed An Empress and The Warriors and Twin Dragons. The film stars Jet Li, Zhang Wen, Eva Huang, Charlene Choi, and Raymond Lam. Li is still amazingly fast in his choreography in the fight scenes. He’ll be celebrating his 50th birthday this month it doesn’t show one bit.
The transfer is in 1080p AVC and it looks very clean. The coloring is vibrant and bright with no exceptions. It shows in the landscapes and the visuals of the CGI used in the movie. The skin tones are warm, very natural, and spot on just like the coloring. With the transfer being so strong, it really brings out the fact that the CGI is subpar. In the scenes where no CGI is used, the contrasting is done very well but where there is green screen use, the actors look like they are superimposed against a cartoon.
The film is in two separate audio tracks, English and Mandarin, and both are in DTS-HD Master Audio. After watching most of English dubbed version, I switched over to the Mandarin and they are identical. The sound is absolutely beautiful and mixed well. The score is enchanting with the old Asian flutes and bold bass tones. Both the sound effects and score fill every channel with amazing clarity so that the dialogue never gets lost in the output. Also, the cross-channel effects are very frequent and smooth. Overall, the work done on the sound was done with care and worthy of blu-ray.
The special features on the disc are pretty good. They way they’re cut is very fast pace but they show how some of the scenes come together to make the finished product.
Supplements
-Behind the scenes with Jet Li: Fighting, Stunts and Laughs
– Behind the Scenes: Visual effects and production design
-Behind the Scenes: Beauties and the beasts
-AXS TV: a look at the sorcerer and the white snake- showing stunts and wire work from the film of how they made the actors into demos
-Theatrical trailer
-Also from Magnolia Entertainment
Edition Ratings
PG-13
Disc Details
2-disc edition including 1 blu-ray and 1 DVD
Includes an iTunes Digital Copy
Region
Region A
Video Resolution
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
Audio
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles
English
English SDH
Spanish
This is a good marriage of fantasy and martial arts. I’ll admit, I’m new to this genre but I think this is a good movie to explore and judge whether it’s for you. The fantasy aspect is entertaining but the movie would be stronger with better CGI. Overall, this is one for fans of the martial arts, fantasy films, or just wanting to see Jet Li show his skills.
