Painted Skin (1993)

- Country: Hong Kong
- Action Director: Alan Chui Chung-san
- Directed by: King Hu Chin-chuan
- Starring: Adam Cheng Siu-chow, Joey Wang Cho-yin, Lam Ching-ying, Lau Shun, Sammo Hung Kam-bo, Wu Ma
King Hu‘s swan-song sees him finally shoot in mainland China (Hu was born and educated in Beijing) after years of working in exile, for a film based on Pu Songling’s hugely popular 18th century ghost story, The Painted Skin. It’s a story he had originally wanted to adapt in the 1960s, before making the superb Dragon Inn. This isn’t a scratch on his other work. Stylistically, its closest companion is probably 1979’s zany supernatural caper, Legend of the Mountain. A Chinese Ghost Story star Joey Wang is somewhat inevitably cast as a possessed concubine who wears a mask of human …
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