Movie: Painted Skin: The Resurrection (画皮II) (2012)

Painted Skin: The Resurrection (画皮II) or Painted Skin 2 (2012) is a Chinese supernatural fantasy movie, the sequel to Painted Skin (2008). Mainland China divas, Zhou Xun reprises her role as a fox demon whereas this time, Zhao Wei appears as a princess.

Synopsis: Xiaowei (Zhou Xun) is a fox demon imprisoned under ice for the past 500 years after she broke demon rules by saving human lives. Once freed, she continues to devour human hearts to regain her youth and beauty. She crosses path with Princess Jing (Zhao Wei), a masked warrior on her way across China to find her true love Huo Xin (Chen Kun). Failing to win his heart, Jing succumbs to Xiaowei's proposal to swap their faces and bodies. By doing so, Xiaowei obtains Jing's heart and Jing regains beauty to woo Huo Xin.

Sounds far-fetched huh? Well, that's Chinese demon legend and fantasy for you. The legend says it takes hundreds, even up to a thousand years to attain human form. However, a demon doesn't have a human heart and thus couldn't experience mortality. If there is a human being who offers his / her heart freely to a demon, it then can become a mortal.

This is an estrogen-packed movie because the chemistry between the two leading actresses, Zhou Xun and Zhao Wei is very dense. Both are super gorgeous and their performance rivals and complements one another at the same time.

Zhao's CGI-ed body-swapping scenes with Zhou are the highlights of this movie and they are much more emotionally touching compared to those sappy, teary eyes scenes with Chen Kun. By the way, Chen Kun looks stupid in this movie. His character is definitely overshadowed by the two divas. He has nothing to prove apart from acting helpless, heartbroken and well, plain stupid.

I would say this movie will definitely be a favorite among the ladies because it's basically a story of a woman's selfless, sacrificial love as she fights off another pretty woman while trying to capture a man's heart and affection. Sad, but true.

If you have watched the first movie, you should watch this one too. The legendary demon-human face-off between Zhou Xun and Zhao Wei is one that you won't wanna miss. :)