The Summer box office is off to a roaring start in China with the premiere of Painted Skin: The Resurrection setting new box office records this weekend. Reviews are decidedly mixed, from story is flimsy to production is breathtaking. Both are probably true, and is a fine enough reason to tune in. I’ve been dying to check out this movie for the eye candy since it was announced that leads Zhou Xun, Chen Kun, and Vicky Zhao Wei from the first movie would be reuniting for the sequel. This movie doesn’t pick up where the first one left off, but instead time jumps five hundred years later, with the only returning character the demon Xiao Wei. But we get another love triangle with the same three actors, though this time Vicky appears to play a much more proactive character. Chen Kun and Zhou Xun burned my corneas with their chemistry the last time around, and from all the previews I expect no less from them now. Second leads Yang Mi and Feng Shao Feng continue to give me the urge the laugh, so I hope their screen time is limited. The official six-minute MV of the theme song has been released, a new arrangement of the original theme song “Painted Heart” sung by Jane Zhang. It’s even lovelier than the original, and the MV contains a lot of new footage from the movie not seen in the previews. Continue reading →