This sequel was totally unnecessary. Why? Because it was essentially just a remake of the 2008 movie "Painted Skin", which also was better than this sequel. It felt like they tried to show part one as it should have been if they had the budget similar to the sequel.The story in part two was just too similar to part one, to the point where it became a shameless knock off of the 2008 movie. And that just added to the pointless feeling of it the movie.Xun Zhou and Wei Zhao carried the movie quite nicely, as they also did in the first movie, and they were joined by a talented cast ensemble.Visually this was an impressive and beautiful movie. The CGI and special effects team delivered an amazing experience here. And the costumes and locations also were right on the money, being impressive and beautiful as well.This was not the brightest of moments in Chinese cinema. Don't get me wrong though, because it is a good movie in itself. Just too bad that it was such a shameless rip off of part one. If you haven't seen part one then the sequel is a good movie. If you have seen part one, don't really bother much with part two.

After the stimulating first of this series , production-cost-time-spent-wise , and the attracted-to because of, but absurd special-effect driven looks of it, much of the audience while potentially just as easily satisfied with this one, probably didn't notice its ruining feature - a scene very unrealistic for one of the main characters , the inheritor-Princess main character.While the first had more incapability , this is too theatrical and pointless , there being no reason to have the in-a-different-life souls in such positions of power ... i was momentarily reminded of the female rogue from Kokkorro or however you spell it from the first painted skin , but the male & female leads in this were with less of their own emotions, and instead , the difficulties of portraying 2nd-life/reincarnation parallels/similarities has been avoided somewhat by their reasons not needing to be their own - their decisions can be ones of EXPECTATION, of their positions ... yawwwwn ... somebody extract the Daishi from the writer/editor's A** Reno 911 style please !Yet another vain continuum of over-confidence of the effect/s of demon art / mythology/whatever. Japanaese-Demon-fear guff Sorry, Urban-princesses out there , but as far as this prince is concerned , if you'd really think the princess character would abandon what she did in this movie just for the sake of dramatic-sentimentality and emotional excercise , i wont say what , then you're not the kind of princess for this puppy !Emotions are for feeling about things in the REAL world , not inflated floating-dreams already popped and rotting.Just ask a abandoned Polynesian who's BOAT , not ROOF-hat, didn't get the latest upgrade. Swish Swish Swish, miss miss miss , Chinese? production team ... aim a bit better when aiming for their Houses-your-enemy.LEARN, from that episode of Reno.Different reason for having one up there , but it needs to be extracted nevertheless...mmmm, Corn dog!

I wasn't expecting much from this movie. But it surprised me. The story (already well documented on this site) was not overly complex yet it did have some deeper themes about sacrifice, being enraptured by physical beauty and yet being hollow inside. The hardest thing for me was that Princess Ying (Vicky Zhao) was supposed to be depressed about her facial scars - hidden by her golden mask. But I find her to be extremely attractive so to imagine her as some horrible ugly thing was hard to swallow. Even when she reveals her mask the scars don't look all that bad. Actually all three main actresses were very attractive and did very well in their respective roles. The only minor complaint would be the wooden performance by the actor portraying the general. He livens up towards the end so I guess I'll give him a pass.8/10

Though I come here to read reviews quite often, I have never bothered with a review until this particular movie. We stumbled across this movie and decided to watch it on a whim. I had never heard of it before yesterday, nor its predecessor, and I normally shy away from Chinese fantasy that isn't big box office, yet there was something in the synopsis that caught my attention. Figuring we could always switch it off if it proved truly awful, we decided to take a chance. I'm quite happy we did.First the bad side. The choreography for the fight scenes doesn't make sense half the time in the beginning (a man flipping and twirling off his horse because he was sliced by a sword? What?), and the graphics are definitely low budget (the green-screen scene by the lake toward the middle of the movie was just wretched). The plot gets so over dramatic at times that it takes away from the story itself (the eye thing toward the end was just too much x.x), though upon reflection it does make more sense than most fantasy movies these days (yes George, even one arrow in the shoulder can freaking HURT, thank you). The make-up could have been a bit better, and I was honestly expecting to see more vulpine qualities in the demon, if you know what I mean.Redemption time: I feel this movie is such wonderful proof that there are times when the acting and the plot can make up for a whole world of sin. Even when some of the short-comings were a distraction, it was still easy to get drawn right back into the story. The choreography for the fighting definitely improves (the scarred princess has amazing moments for this o.o), and the choreography for the dancing is exquisite. The acting between the demon fox and scarred princess is stunning at times, especially toward the most crucial parts where most actors tend to drop the ball (not going to give away spoilers here. You'll see what I mean when you get there). The singing of the demon fox is haunting and beautiful, and the demon bird is so much what this movie needed. I also didn't even think about it until toward the end just how much subtle symbolism there is.Down two stars because of how much the movie lacked, but if you can get your hands on it and forgive its short-comings, this movie is definitely worth the watch. Now to find the first one!