In the twilight of the Ming Dynasty, the Imperial court is plagued by corruption as tyrants rule over the land. That is at least the Internet Movie Database describes this movie in its first sentence. I expected the worst but was quite surprised that this movie wasn’t too bad at all.
Storyline
The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom (白发魔女传之明月天国) is a film released on 25th April 2014 and made in China.
This is a better description of the film that I found:
“Based on the classic martial arts novel by Liang Yu Sheng, it evolves around a pair of star-crossed lovers – a devilish outlaw, The White-Haired Witch, and the righteous Taoist leader, Zhuo Yi Hang and their love that could change the fate of the nation.”
I understand there are two other adaptations which I haven’t seen:
- 1993 Hong Kong movie called “The Bride With White Hair”
- 2020 Chinese movie called “White Haired Devil Lady”
Crew
Only recognized one of the actors.
- 43-year-old actor Huang Xiao Ming played Zhuo Yi Hang
- I recognize a lot of film actor Fan Bing Bing had been in but haven’t seen any of them, she skillfully played the White Haired Witch aka Lian Nishang
- I recognized actor Vincent Zhao but can’t remember from which production, he played a supporting character Jin Du Yi.
- Way down the list of supporting characters was Wei Kai, I’m not even sure which character he played, but he was in the first season of Ever Night.
Review
The first thing I noticed about this film was the amount they packed into it and the level of detail, they must have gone to so some trouble putting it all together. The storyline was sound with some twists and turns. Some of the photography, and scenery, were very good and the special effects weren’t bad for a way back in 2014. I thought there were some moderate saucy bits for a Chinese movie, more open than I’ve seen before. I can probably see why some people didn’t like the ending, I won’t say anything about it here, it wasn’t what I was expecting.
So, Internet Movie Database users only gave it a 5.4 rating. On Asian sites, I saw about as high as 7.1. Viki users gave it an 8.2. I would give it an 8/10.
If you want to see it the movie is available on Viki but you will need to be a subscriber to the site.