Soul Snatcher
亦狐书生
China/Hong Kong, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 126 mins.
Directors: Song Haolin 宋灏霖, Yi Liqi 伊力奇.
Rating: 5/10.
Costume-fantasy buddy movie lacks a strong through-line and never convinces as a story of real friendship.
STORY
Ancient China. A tribe of fox spirits in human form gather under the command of their chief elder (Zhang Chenguang), who announces that on the 15th of the next month, the Night of the Purple Moon, there will be an opportunity – occurring only once every thousand years – to gain the White Elixir of the (Human) Soul 元魂白丹 so they can become immortal, first-class fox spirits with nine tails. Unconventional fox spirit Bai Shisan, aka Thirteen (Li Xian), fails the initial test but the chief elder, who found him when young, has confidence in him and allows him to go out into the human world to extract the white elixir from an unsuspecting human (whom he will have to kill). He takes with him Ying Wuxie (Yang Zi), a communications device with a female voice. Also, the chief elder instructs the Daoist priest Zhang Zhenren (Li Xiaochuan) to watch over and protect the impulsive Bai Shisan on his quest. Bai Shisan arrives in a village where, after a chaotic incident involving a pony stable, he meets young travelling scholar Wang Zijin (Chen Linong), who is on his way to Jiankang city to sit the imperial civil service exam. Wang Zijin loses his own donkey, which he was planning to give to Liu Daoran (Wang Yaoqing), his mentor from an early age with whom he was hoping to travel. Bai Shisan befriends Wang Zijin, thinking he could extract the white elixir from him, and the two travel on together. That night, while Wang Zijin is asleep, Zhang Zhengren appears and Bai Shisan tells him to find Wang Zijin’s donkey. Next morning, finding his donkey back, Wang Zijin starts to trust Bai Shisan. That night they arrive in a mist-shrouded village and stay overnight at the ghostly Bitter Sea Academy 苦海学院, run by Zhu (Jiang Chao), which offers courses in passing the imperial exam. During the night Wang Zijin is attacked by a giant frog with a long tongue and Bai Shisan, who is in cahoots with Zhu, manages to “save” him, further winning his confidence. Next day, Bai Shisan, who is starting to like the naive Wang Zijin, admits he is actually a fox spirit. Impressed, Wang Zijin asks him to help find his mentor Liu Daoran. When they arrive at Jiankang city, Bai Shisan gives the virginal young scholar a guided tour of its delights, including Peony Brothel, where Wang Zijin meets the beautiful Yinglian (Hanikezi), a demon spirit in human form. Next day, as the imperial examination starts and carries on into the evening, Bai Shisan and Yinglian battle over Wang Zijin’s soul.
REVIEW
A costume-fantasy buddy movie centred on a young scholar and a fox spirit in human guise, Soul Snatcher 赤狐书生 should be about the tug between necessity and friendship, as the latter initially befriends the former to snatch his elixir but ends up genuinely liking instead of killing him. The problem is that, thanks to a needlessly complex script, the film isn’t half as involving as it thinks it is, with the central friendship not strong enough to sustain things and the final half-hour quite a hawl. Co-directed by Mainland actors-turned-directors Song Haolin 宋灏霖, 43, and Yi Liqi 伊力奇, 36, and based on a popular internet novel, it’s largely sustained by a lively performance from Hubei-born actor Li Xian 李现, 29, as the carefree fox spirit, rather than by his co-star, boyish-looking Taiwan singer Chen Linong 陈立农, 20. However, though Li has his admirers, it was probably Chen’s young female fans in the Mainland who tipped the balance in the film’s respectable, if hardly stellar, RMB186 million box office.
Born in Shandong, co-director Song started as an actor (under the exact homonym 宋昊林) and turned to direction with the online feature Fatal Love 所爱非人 (2016) and light comedy Mr. Zhu’s Summer 猪太狼的夏天 (2017), the latter his first theatrical release. For Yi, from Inner Mongolia, Soul Snatcher is his first theatrical feature as a director. Reflecting the significant Hong Kong element on the producing side, the key crew is heavy with experienced names from the territory – d.p. Chen Zhiying 陈志英 (Buddies in India 大闹天竺, 2017; Fat Buddies 胖子行动队, 2018), art director Qiu Weiming 邱伟明 [Alfred Yau], costume designer/stylist Wang Baoyi 王宝仪, music producer Liang Qiaobai 梁翘柏 [Kubert Leung] – as well as veteran Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi 久石让 whose way-above-average scoring does a lot to give the film some atmosphere. In front of the camera, the Taiwan contingent (actors Chen, Zhang Chenguang 张晨光, Wang Yaoqing 王耀庆, plus veteran actress Tian Niu 恬妞) melds smoothly, if fleetingly, with the Mainland cast.
The screenplay, written by Ran Jia’nan 冉甲男 (Painted Skin: The Resurection 画皮II, 2012; The Monkey King 2 西游记之孙悟空三打白骨精, 2016), novelist Li Huiyan 李慧研 and Xinjiang-born writer Yang Weiwei 杨薇薇 (Sheep without a Shepherd 误杀, 2019), is a massively simplified version of the picaresque novel Chun jiang hua yue ye 春江花月夜 (literally, “Spring, River, Flower, Moon, Night”) by the pseudonymous Duo Duo 多多 that was first published online in 2005 and then in a book version, heavily revised by the author, in 2015 (see cover, left). Despite that, the film’s plot is still needlessly complex, and lacks a strong through-line, with lots of hocus-pocus about demons and spirits that seems totally arbitrary and allows the plot to go in any direction at will.
However, Soul Snatcher is not as in-your-face with visual effects as many of its kind, and during the heart of the film – a 10-minute battle for the soul of the scholar during the imperial examination, about two-thirds of the way through – there are some inventive visual ideas rather than just CGI for its own sake. Among the creative producers is, notably, Hong Kong-born animator Xu Chengyi 许诚毅 [Raman Hui] (Shrek the Third, 2007; Monster Hunt 捉妖记, 2015; Monster Hunt 2 捉妖记2, 2018).
As said, it’s largely the lively presence of Li – who played the son in Feng Shui 万箭穿心, 2012, streetwise Chongqinger in Mates 睡在我上铺的兄弟, 2016, and group leader in The Enigma of Arrival 抵达之谜, 2018 – that holds the whole thing together and helps to keep any hints of bromance with Chen’s pretty-boy scholar at bay. He’s well supported by Uyghur dancer/actress Hani Kyzy 哈妮克孜, 25, in her first feature after a couple of online drama series, as the beautiful floaty demon who tries to seduce the scholar, a scene that’s smokily scored by Hisaishi with a slow jazz trumpet; and by Li Xiaochuan 李晓川 (memorable as the gruff local cyclist in Kora 转山, 2011), as the Daoist master who keeps popping up in various funny disguises as the fox-spirit’s protector.
The film’s Chinese title literally means “Red Fox Scholar”.
CREDITS
Presented by Heropolis (Wuxi) (CN), Beijing White Horse Time TV & Movie (CN), Edko (Beijing) Films, Edko Films (HK), Irresistible Alpha (HK), Beijing Weimeng Internet Technology (CN), Huawen Picture (Beijing) (CN), Douyin Culture (Xiamen) (CN). Produced by Heropolis (Wuxi) (CN), Beijing White Horse Time TV & Movie (CN), Edko (Beijing) Films, Edko Films (HK), Irresistible Alpha (HK), Beijing Weimeng Internet Technology (CN), Huawen Picture (Beijing) (CN), Douyin Culture (Xiamen) (CN).
Script: Ran Jia’nan, Li Huiyan, Yang Weiwei. Novel: Duo Duo. Photography: Chen Zhiying. Editing: Zhang Qi. Music: Joe Hisaishi. Music production: Liang Qiaobai [Kubert Leung]. Art direction: Qiu Weiming [Alfred Yau]. Costume design: Wang Baoyi. Styling: Wang Baoyi. Sound: Du Duzhi, Wu Shuyao. Action: Wu Gang. Visual effects: Ron Simonson, Shen Shen (Dexter Studios, Tippett Studio, TWR VFX, VHQ). Choreography: Duan Jingting.
Cast: Chen Linong (Wang Zijin), Li Xian (Bai Shisan/Thirteen Bai), Hani Kyzy (Yinglian), Jiang Chao (Zhu, Bitter Sea Academy owner), Pei Kuishan (He), Zhang Chenguang (chief of Fox tribe), Li Xiaochuan (Zhang Zhenren/Ying-yang Daoist priest), Wang Yaoqing (Liu Daoran), Hao Shaowen (donkey stable owner), Tian Niu (chicken restaurant owner), Yang Zi (voice of Ying Wuxie), Lin Junjun, Peng Yangfei (priests).
Release: China, 4 Dec 2020; Hong Kong, tba.