First I will like to talk about Xiaowei's imprisonment. In the beggining of Painted Skin: Resurrection the narrator tells us that Xiaowei was imprisonment for breaking demon law by saving the life of a human male. This set's up the idea that someone forced Xiaowei to be where we see her in the frozen abyss inside the mountain, punishing her for a kind act. However, no where in Painted Skin or Resurrection are we told or shown that there are set of specific laws that demon have to abide by. Xia Bing even says that there are good and bad demons. So in a way, a demon that kill and eat human and thoes that do not (assumption). Also Xiaowei tells Jing'er that she loved a man, who loved her back but then did not leave his wife. Xiaowei saves their lives but was punished for it. Again we are told that an outside force or body placed a punishment on Xiaowei for just doing this act. This also tells us that these humans (man and his wife) took advantage of an
innocent Xiaowei. Also that Xiaowei's kind act was completely selfless. Since, we get no outside narrative or flashback all we have is what Xiaowei tells us. And since, it's been 500 years none of the people (humans atleast, and lizard demon who is gone) are there to backup or refute her view of things.
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| Xiaowei in Ice Prison being freed with Qu'er's help |
If you saw Painted Skin however, you know that Xiaowei is the one that gave the poison to Peirong and most of the situation was instigated by her scheme to get hearts and to steal Sheng Wang and become Mrs. Wang. Peirong treated Xiaowei well and welcomed her and when Xiaowei confesses her love for Sheng. Peirong was willing for Xiaowei to be with Sheng, if he wanted it. Even when Sheng refused, Peirong saw that he was attracted to Xiaowei and took it on to herself to go tell Xiaowei that she should be Sheng's concubine. Peirong even took on all the blame for the deaths and be hated by everyone even Sheng that she loved most. Saying that if Xiaowei would stop killing, would not hurt Sheng and stay to make him happy.In fact no demon law or rules is ever mentioned not by humans or the demons we see the films.
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| Xiaowei flying away from the mountain |
At the end of Painted Skin Xiaowei is not punished by any outside force because she broke demon law by doing a kind act or for using magic to save a human. Xiaowei disappears when she uses her pearl to save all the people that died because of her. And from what I saw she did not want to save them all. She just wanted to save Sheng but the energy from pearls (including Xiaoyi's) envoloped a large area. If Xiaowei had used just her pearl like she landed, she would have probably just saved Sheng (maybe some others) but not Peirong, who in a way died twice (Deadliest poison & stab wound). This one kind act was not complete repairation or atonment for all the bad and killings she did. So her ice prison seemed to me more like some karmic payback for all she had done. Also the first time we see the frost is when Sheng stabs Xiaowei when Peirong died. Xiaowei seems quite hurt that Sheng was still thinking of Peirong even though he thought she was a demon, she screams, her skin turns quite and cool vapor escapes her lips. So, her we see that no one did this but Xiaowei herself.
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Xiaowei
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| Xiaowei's true form (without painted skin) |
Another times when we see the ice prison is when Xiaowei is playing her pipa (chinese lute) to seduce the masked Jing'er. the frost appears from a drop of water on a leaf and starts to crawl towards Xiaowei. No one created it and sent it after her, no one is really judging Xiaowei for the things she does. To me the frost seemed to be created by Xiaowei herself. On normal general circumstances a person has a conscience which makes them feel guilt, shame and pain (among others). When they hurt someone this consciene makes them feel remorse and even stop them from doing it and have them atone for the wrong they have done. To me his frost/ice prison seemed to be a manifestation of a conscience for a demon. And in this case since Xiaowei could live almost forever. It does not seem far fetched that she would be reprrimanded for hundreds of years for hundred of years of bad deeds. I am saying this because I feeled in some the demon mythology based on one that says that a creature having cultivated itself and for some acts can gain powers and in the cause of an animal can gain human intelligence and take human for thus a demon. If that demon (supernatural creature) continues to cultivates itself it gains more power and sometimes can become human. A human who has many cultivations can sometimes become divine ( a diety) or the order can change. With what Xiaoyi (Lizard demon) says in Painted Skin, we know that Xiaowei has a 1,000 years cultivated pearl that holds a lot of magic. So Xiaowei can be atleast a 1,000 years old or have lived hundred of enough years to have gained that much power. And for that time atleast she has been killing and consuming human hearts when Xiaoyi was not doing it for her. So the narration in the beginning and Xiaowei's own words do not fit and depict her has a complete victim of others. While some parts of Resurrection and Painted Skin shows us that this is not true.
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Demon Hunter (amatuer, never heard his name)
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| Qu'er (Sparrow Demon) |
A second thing that I wanted information on that I feel the movies lacked was what exactly was the demon mythology in this universe. Specially regarding the ice prison. We are never shown any figure that is shown to be a figure of authority in the demon world that would have been responsible for punishing Xiaowei by placing her in the ice. This brings me to the question of what exactly is demon nature suppose to be? Xiaowei is said to be punish because she saved a human life, implying that being kind was not part of being a demon. Also Xiaowei tells Qu'er that she did not really experince pain after the demon hunter's blood touched her and thus could not love. She also lists other things:, can not see the color of the sky, can not smell flowers, cannot have someone die for you. These things are only reserved for humans. But this is shown not to be true. If it was how is it that Xiaowei and Qu'er can interact with the world around her if they can smell or see? Specially for Xiaowei who has painted for herself a figure and face that is considered most beautiful in the world. Also she mentions that her scent is resistable and we see this effect on Hou Xin. So how is Xiaowei able to create the skin she wears that is attractive to human senses. Not only humans but demons too. In the beginning Qu'er is attracted to Xiaowei because of her beautiful face. We see that in both movies Xiaowe is not alone. She has Xiaoyi, who loves her and then Qu'er, who also cares for her. Both demons spend time finding and getting hearts for Xiaowei and they both die in the end trying to protect her. How is that not them willing to die for her? They both do. Also it's not gurranteed that everyone human has someone who cares enough to die for them, in cases there aren't.
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| Jing'er & Xiaowei change skins |
A third thing I wanted to know more was the juxaposition between the life of a demon and human. When Xiaowei is depicting her life has being pityful. Jing'er, who is a princess her life too is not all great. Jinger says something along the lines that a creaute whether demon or human is not guaranteed a good life.
So, I wanted more of what it meant to be a demon as suppose to a human illustrated because some of the things Xiaowei mentions is not supported by the movies themselves.
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| Despite Scars Zhao Wei looks beautiful. Zhou Xun too. |
Fourth, something that struck me from beginning to end especially in Resurrection was Xiaowei's desire to be human. In Painted Skin she never shows any desire to be human it's only when Peirong asks her to stop killing and thus giving her Sheng that she says she would stop eating human hearts and let herself grow old. It was just a bargain she had to make in order to win. And this comes out to play in Resurrection because although she says she wants humanity, when she is free she goes back to eating human hearts. Although one can say she does not kill the people herself (particularly in Resurrection where she is never actually shown taking a heart) she knows who does and they do it for her and she profits from it. Xiaowei also doesn't stop scheming and manipulating. She schemed, which is how Jing'er saved her. When she arrives at the White City and sees that Jing'er she immediately makes sure that she can used the situation to her advantage by putting a spell ong Hou Xin, so that whether Jing'er face was an issue or not Jinger would need her body to be with Hou Xin. Also in saving Jing'er, she wanted to have the heart. In Resurrection although she lists the benefit of being human to Qu'er (smelling flowers etc...) to me that was not really why she wanted to be human. The main reason was to escape the ice prison. A human does not normally get followed around by an ice prison. The ice prison seemed to be a manisfestation of Xiaowei's conscience reprimanding her for the schemes, killings, manipulation and selfish acts she comminted and continued to commit even after Qu'er helped free her.
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| Jing'er gives Xiaowei her heart |
Fifth, another thing I wanted to know that the Painted Skin: Resurrection did not address was Jing'er's strong heart, which seemed to be the heart that everyone needed. Xiaowei does not let Qu'er kill her when they find out she is a woman because Xiaowei felt such strong heat energy from her and she was able to drive away the frost. Also the shaman for the Wolf Tribe seemed to know that Jing'er's was the heart that they needed to bring back their prince that died because of Xiaowei in the beginning. Jing'er seemed to be of strong character, but besides that and her being a princess. Why was her heart so specially. We know she had 13 other sisters, if it was the need for royal blood. And of all the woman the Wolf Tribe could have gotten easier excess too. why Jing'er? I mean she refused the marriage and was in love with someone else. It would have been good to have given the audience something about why Jing'er had a heart that fit all the supernatuaral needs besides leaving it to the Princess/Royal blood default. Because the shaman could had gotten one of the other 13 princess far easier then Jing'er (it seems).
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| A blind Hou Xin cuts off the Shaman's frozen arm. |
Other things that I thought took away from the movie was the long length of some scene and shortness of others. For example, Jing'er's fall. We know she was resigned to die, we saw it on her face. There was no need to draw out the fall because it took away from the impact of it. When it slowed, I knew immediately she would not die. But if it happened face and Xiaowei saved her revealing herself, it would have had more impact. The scene that needed the time was Hou Xin's coming to his senses. It happens quite fast, while if the scene had been given more time we would see the pain and agony of the realization when things become clearer to him of how much of an idiot he was sometimes. Now this leads to a scene that some reviews thought was a bit dramatic (I too when I first heard it). But I see why the scene was done. When Hou Xin cuts his eyes , you might be like (What the hell?). But then like we know and he says he was under Xiaowei's spell (shadow foxes that enter his eyes). So whenever he saw Xiaowei's skin he wanted to be intimate with the body (whether it was really Jing'er or Xiaowei) especially when he caught her scent. Which happens. So, besides the demon hunter finding a way to remove the shadows the only way they left was when he destroyed his sight. Only then was his senses back under his control.
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| Hou Xin |
Hou Xin felt short of the two main women and I thought if his character had been worked on more it would have improved the movie. I wanted to more of what was going on inside him. We know he felt a lot of guilt and responsibility for having let Jing'er get hurt (physically and emotional). So whenever he saw the golden mask it was just proof that he was a failure, could not protect Jing'er really and shouldn't even try. We see Hou Xin's desire to be with someone especially Jing'er but this gets twisted and turned.
One thing that came across strongly to me while watching both movies was how they wanted us to over look and just feel sorry for Xiaowei especially in Resurrection, to disregarding her painted skin, schemes and seduction. To me it kind of clear that people, especially men where not attracted to Xiaowei by accident. This seems to be more apperant in Resurrection than in Painted Skin. Xiaowei's figure and look are not by accident, she created it knowing it would be most attractive to men. Also the situations she finds herself in for the most part is all planned and setup. This is especially evident in Resurrection when Jing'er saves her and the men Jing'er fought were created by Xiaowei. We learn this at the camp fire when she is speaking with Qu'er. The situation was a set up. We see this also in Painted Skin, which is not so evident but not only does Sheng dream about Xaoiwei. She also is always there for her to be the first person he sees after he wakes and it is also alluded that Xiaowei may also be resposible for creating or instigating the love making dream Sheng has at the end. Because when he wakes he sees a shadow and when he tries to find the source of it. It leads him to Xiaowei's door, there is the sound of crying which makes him move closer then she opens the door making sure he sees her.
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| A Frozen Xiaowei |
That being said I did feel sorry for Xiaowei and understand her pain, when she felt she should be loved and chosen by Sheng over Peirong a mere human. I also liked Peirong and felt that she had to face some challenges like in the Painted Skin I felt Peirong was more interesting and went through a wider range of emotions. In Resurrection Xiaowei was good but I felt she was playing the victim to much. making me wonder if she had forgotten whe happened in Painted Skin, but then she was tell Jing'er the story so she remember. Both Zhou Xun and Zhao Wei were good in there characters in both movies. In Resurrection when the women switch I could immediately relate, understand and see that Zhao Wei was Xiaowei and she was more believable in making see that she wanted to be human not just to escape from the frost prison but for the things she told Qu'er. Especially when she get Jing'er heart and body wakes feeling the sun on her skin and the smelling the flower. I didn't completely believe Zhou Xun as Xiaowei when she had said she wanted to be human not just to escape the frost, though at other times she was good. I also like Jing'er better and understood her when Zhao Wei played her as suppose to Zhou Xun. I was not complete drawn in when Zhou Xun was Jing'er. Zhao Wei seemed to convey more emotion even though she has the mask covering some of her face. So I am not sure if I just liked one person's style better or what?
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| Zhao Wei & Chen Kun (Did not see this scene in the film) |
