The Three Acts: Initial Tableau: Every 1000 years at July 15, a period of travel among Hell, Heaven, and Earth ensues, where travel is done by reincarnation. Devastation results as demons reincarnate near the village of Hu on Earth. The powers that be in Heaven dispatch a volunteer, Zhang Dao Xian, to help out the humans caught in the crossfire. Zhong Kui steals the 'Dark Crystal' from an active ceremony in Hell itself, and is spirited away by Zhang, one of the gods. The Snow Demon volunteers to the Demon King to fetch back the crystal. Her sister, Little Snow, is being held captive by the King, so her compliance is assured.Delineation of Conflicts: Snow Demon wants the crystal for her King. Heaven wants to keep it, so as to restore all the souls taken by demons. Zhong Kui is assigned to protect the Dark Crystal as it lies hidden within Hu. When a traveling troupe of entertainers arrives from the west, Zhong finds that Little Snow came with it. Can Zhong help free Little Snow from Hell, or will she seduce him away from his primary duty to Heaven? Will he successfully defend the Dark Crystal and the captured souls within it?Resolution: There are some major reversals during the final segment as resolution approaches. Those were quite well done.

All movies has it's flaws, but besides that, Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal is a visually-pleasing movie. The CGI isn't perfect, but it does its job. It most certainly is better than other Chinese movies when it comes to the animations. The story is mostly a drama/fantasy surrounding the subject of heaven and hell, demons and gods. I didn't really enjoy the movie at the start, but I'm glad I watched through the entire film.The movie itself is good, and the story line stays interesting and entertaining. I would definitely recommend trying this movie out especially if you love mythical creatures.

Zhong Kui (Chen Kun) has been trained as a scholar and a demon- hunter; the God Zhang has taken him as a pupil in preparation for stealing the Dark Crystal, which the demons of hell own and use to store stolen human spirits. Zhong achieves that quest, but the King of the demons enlists the aid of Snow Girl (Li Bingbing) to steal the Crystal back. Matters become more complicated when it becomes clear that Zhong and Snow Girl were former lovers, and they still mean more to each other than human and demon should. Will their love save - or destroy - the three realms of Heaven, Earth and Hell?This is a beautifully striking film, filled with gorgeous scenery and marvelous fight scenes. The film-makers went all out with CGI monsters and other effects, using a number of different companies (including Weta Workshop), although that decision results in uneven effects from time to time. For example, some scenes look more like a video game than a movie. But overall, the spectacle holds up well, although I think I might need repeated viewings to understand the whole thing!

It's no understatement that half of Zhong Kui is made of video game CG animation, which is not a bad thing visual-wise. This is probably one of the better looking animations from Chinese films, it is much more detailed and graphically pleasant from other recent works, though not every scene is gold. With aesthetically pleasing production value of costume and setting, the movie changes an average myth story into an eye candy.Story follows Zhong Kui, a demon slayer with tragic past and his love interest the Snow Girl. As fate has it, they would meet in a struggle for a magical relic called Dark Crystal, so far the title is on point. The script stumbles a bit as the heavenly endeavor has too many plot devices masked as supreme powers and also much of the film is invested on Romeo and Juliet theme.This is usual in mythical flick, the character or item has overpowered attribute so there's little consistency. Fortunately, the two leads perform well, especially Li Bing Bing as Snow Girl. If a comparison should be made, she's dressed and presented much like Disney's Cinderella. Her pale visage and good acting will delight the audiences, moreover the film utilizes the beauty in majestic set pieces throughout.Pacing is rather slow, the film serves also as drama between the two, this can be exhausting as the predictable romantic plot takes a bulk of the movie. It employs a couple of decent twists at latter half only to end up on an anticlimactic conclusion. Nevertheless, each scene is presented with elaborate colorful vistas and dashing outfits.Furthermore, half of it is well crafted CGI animation, everyone who have played any video games will see the resemblances. This is much better than previous Chinese animation, the details of face and clever way it paints the environment outweighs some occasions where the effect seems plastic or slow. There are times that the graphic might look jarring and outdated, but for most important part it is quite presentable.Zhong Kui doesn't stray far from typical myth of heaven and hell or forbidden love cliché, although it has stylish production and gorgeous set pieces to paint an ordinary tale with more fascinating colors.