China Onscreen Biennial: Painted Skin:The Resurrection (画皮 II)

Part of the UCLA Confucius Institute's inaugural China Onscreen Biennial （银幕中国双年展）project, an unprecedented bicoastal collaboration among seven distinguished American educational and cultural organizations to promote US-China dialogue through the art of film. October 13-31, Los Angeles | October 26-11, Washington, DC

PAINTED SKIN

Director: Wuershan. Producer: Chen Kuo-fu, Pang Hong, Wang Zhonglei. Screenwriter: Ran Ping, Ran Jia’nan. Cinematographer: Arthur Wong. Production Designer: Hao Yi. Editor: Xiao Yang. Sound: Zhao Nan, Yang Jiang. Composer: Katsunori Ishida. Cast: Zhou Xun, Vicki Zhao, Chen Kun, Mini Yang, William Feng.

PAINTED SKIN smashed box-office records this summer to become the highest-grossing Mainland Chinese film of all time. This visually sumptuous take on one of the Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Qing Dynasty writer Pu Songling pairs humans and demons equally obsessed by something they cannot have… or cannot be. After she’s freed by the bird spirit Qu’er from 500 years of imprisonment under a frozen lake, fox spirit Xiaowei still needs to devour men’s hearts. She chances upon Princess Jing, who, disfigured by a bear, hides behind a mask and dares not confront her true love. If the two women exchange identities, however, Jing would be beautiful again, and Xiaowei would finally become a woman. – Bérénice Reynaud

Blu-ray, color, Putonghua with English subtitles, 131 min.