PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*
Whatever the credits of this 2020 film might aver, WHITE HAIRED DEVIL LADY certainly seems to be dwelling under the long shadow of the celebrated 1990s BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR films.
Whereas those films were broad and operatic, though, writer-director Tianyu Zhou turns out a somewhat fast-paced rendition of the earlier films' favorite tropes: a dastardly plot by royal conspirators, a doomed romance between a loyal Chinese soldier and a mysterious female fighter, and the female's alienation from romantic love, culminating in her transformation into a white-haired witch-woman.
There's not much question that the BRIDE films explored all of these tropes with greater dramatic power than LADY. Nevertheless, director Zhou-- who may be a young guy, since he's only directed one other movie-- displays a fine power to stage enchanting scenes in a fantasy-China that never was. The actors don't really have a chance to shine because the complicated plot races from point to point, but they and their costumes all look very good, particularly the titular "devil lady" Lian Nishang (Weina Zhang). While I can't say that the action-sequences are as evocative as the quieter, more lyrical moments, Nishang has a bravura sequence in which she takes out about ten men with nothing but a dagger.
I really love the look of this film and wish the plot was the equal of the visuals. Incidentally, though IMDB lists a separate film on Zhou's resume. "White-Haired Princess," I watched twenty minutes of a film with that title online, and I believe this is the same film as DEVIL LADY.
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