Soul Snatcher (2020)

Escapism

Such an enjoyable story, shere fantasy and escapism; something we all need in these challenging times.
I love the true friendship that develops between the lead characters and how Zi Jin (Chen Li Nong) is so naive and innocent, which disarms Shi San (Lee Xian) on a few occasions.
The CGI is pretty good and there are ghosts and all manner of strange creatures
The filming and sets are so good too.
I enjoyed the majority of the soundtrack, especially the closing song (sung by cast member CLN), but there was some instrumental music in a couple of scenes that I didn't think matched.
I felt a little more could have been made of the closing scenes, but overall I thought this nicely acted and well done.
Hard to believe it's Chen Li Nong's first film and one I'd happily watch again.

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Destined adventure with friendship, brotherhood, sacrifice

Foxes use elixirs found on humans for immortality. A white elixir exists one in a thousand years and chosen fox students will go through an exam to find it.
Hundreds of centuries ago, a cute and playful fox spirit was saved by a boy collecting herbs in a mountain and they were fated to meet again. The boy who died centuries ago is reborn as a scholar from Tushan who has his own mission and on his way to participate in an examination. The fox spirit went to the human world to look for the claman who has the elixir thought to be the rarest. He was assigned a protector because their chief knew he will cause a lot of trouble.
The unexpected friendship and brotherhood between them was put to test and they were running towards a doomed ending.
Who will sacrifice for who? Whose soul will be snatched? What will be more important?
Surprised by the ending to know a danger was well disguised, this black nine-tailed fox was greedy for immortality. He became the soul snatcher you didn't expect that deserved to be punished by lightning.
The story is short but I enjoyed the brotherhood, the funny and silly moments, the innocent scholar running for his life but came back trying to save his mischievous fox spirit friend not knowing it was part of his tricks, the short fight scenes, their costumes, and short romance,
I was distracted with the different healing method using blood of the different kinds of monsters stored in the paintings because it didn't look good for those monsters but this is fantasy and fiction,
The scholar and the fox spirit balance each other and I love their story. Li Xian is very cute and funny as the mischievous fox spirit and he bonds well with Chen Li Nong the naive but kind hearted scholar. They both have beautiful souls.
The fox spirit's nine-tailed fox transformation reminded me of Kurama but with some six packs, the cgi for both foxes and their fight scene is amazing,
Watch it and have fun,

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Is this movie really that good?

The red fox named Bai Shisan goes on an exam where he is to find a calman who holds the elixir in his heart. Bai Shisan tricks Wang Zijin into getting the elixir with a certain two-faced teacher. Wang Zijin is a naive and poor scholar who lives with his grandma. Honestly, Bai Shisan is very quirky and loves chicken. This movie is like a short drama you can binge to and can rewatch anytime. At first, I really had a bit of expectations but this movie turned out much more emotional and amazing than my original thought. Yes, bromance is a bit less but you can expect a bit of emotional romance in here. I really want to dig my heart out to Yinglian. She is so pretty and has a pretty bad background story. If only they would star Chen Linong and Hankiz Omar into a Chinese costume drama, that would let me Stan and cry for a bit more.

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Flawed, but fun.

The first half is fun and enjoyable, the second unfortunately drags out and shifts in tone towards serious and surprisingly violent.
This did NOT need a goofy CGI bossfight.

Over all it's a neat film in the vein of Chinese Ghost Story.
The actors are very decent.
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Really Good Story About Friendship and Sacrifice

I loved it.

Story
- It's a bit predictable and simple but it's well-told.
- I loved the characters and the story of a friendship between fox and mortal

Acting
- Li Xian being the playful fox spirit Bai Shi San here is ... His performance was unexpected. Playful, mischievous, funny, yet vulnerable
- Chen Linong is new to acting but he's not bad
- They have good chemistry together.
- Hanikezi is super cute and sweet and so funny.

VFX
- I like the CGI foxes hahaa

OST
- Definitely adding the themesong to my Spotify playlist
少年无邪 by Chen Linong

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A touching story

So basically I feel that this movie is so UNDERRATED! I feel so upset that it doesn't get more attention that it deserves! Ok well some of the relationship between two characters, like the ghost lady and the scholar male lead, wasn't nicely developed. They spent a night reading some story and the lady was playing the pipa, and he wants to marry her already to free her from the resentments of the human world. Well I get that part but what I don't understand was how he fell in love with her so quickly. The dialogs when he was proposing to her was good, but I just don't feel any chemistry between them. However, the chemistry between the two male leads are just BAM! Their friendship is pure despite the fact that the fox, only tagged along with the scholar because he needs something, a white elixir from him that could cause the scholar's life so that he could be a nine tailed fox immortal. And when that time comes, the scholar gave it without hesitation to a person who's pretending to be the fox ML. His fox friend obtained that elixir, which the villian thought was just a normal black elixir. A plot twist happened which I'll not mention, but the fox gave up immortality to save his scholar friend, and was reduced to a normal fox. His scholar friend's memories was wiped away, but his compassion remains. When his scholar friend saw that fox that was badly injured, he took him in. And thus, the two friends spend their lives together. Meanwhile, somewhere at the start, there's this taosit priest that stabs paintings to cure people, and IT WENT SO SMOOTHLY. The blood oozing from the painting is just amazing! I hope you'll give this movie a chance

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I cried so hard

I didn't expect this movie to be THIS good! I'm here for li xian and chen linong. But I fell in love with the movie. Everything is just so perfect. From the storyline, the acting, the ost, I loved them all. I wouldn't doubt li xiuan's acting, but I don't know about chen linong, since it's his first time acting. I didn't expect him to portray his character so perfectly. I nearly cried five times throughout the movie, but I had to fight it back T^T the ending is definitely so touching. Shisan finally realized that he didn't want to be a god anymore and so he sacrificed his life for zijin. And I guess they lived happily ever after. I almost thought that this would be another cliche story, but it had a lot of plot twists. The moral from this film also had me impressed. I'm definitely rewatching this in the future!

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Beautiful fantasy adventure movie

Liked this movie based on brotherhood. A scholar and a fox on a journey meeting various challenges is a quite classic format of Chinese mythical tales. This movie is beautifully executed. The CGI is brilliant. I don't think many people will notice it but background music is also good. Often bad background score can spoil a good movie. The background score for this movie is given by none other than Joe Hisaishi, who has given music to Miyazaki movies from Studio Ghibli. Remember "One Summer Day" from Spirited Away - that's Joe Hisaishi. Don't miss this experience!

The sequence of scholar giving exam and descending to nether realm is one of the most brilliant plot devices I've seen in recent Chinese fantasy genre. That alone makes this movie worth watching. I don't know about second watch, but this movie is definitely worth a try at least once.

Movie is full of beautiful colors. Overall a very pleasant watch. Perhaps men will like this more.

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Surprising!

This is so not a review...just a general how I felt about the movie...
It was a surprise, I'm a sucker for fantasy, especially this kind of story.
It was really good, the acting made it even better.
When I start watching a movie or a drama nowdays I go in with zero expectations, after the first twenty minutes
I felt ..."Oh wow, it's been a long time since I had so mun fun watching a movie!"
It's going on my rewatch list, it's that good....
Hope if you are having second thoughts, or if you are thinking "is it worth my time" ?
I'm going to dare you to watch it, tell me what you think when you are done! OK???
HAVE FUN! TAKE CARE!
XOXO
Unikeverse

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Fun movies of two homies

The story is so good !! It is slow at first but the pace picks up. The story is full of fun and comedy, very light hearted at first ! I think the friendship between Shisan and Zijin is natural, the gradual trust and bonding between the two are sweet. Shisan's experiencing internal turmoil to achieve immortality or not was executed well. Zijin actor is very good at expressions, especially when showing sincerity. Zijin actor is the perfect cast for him, since his features exude kindness, and naivety at the same time. Shisan actor is amazing at body language, at one point it is very noticable.

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Gran historia

Definitivamente es una película muy buena; es extremadamente divertida, me encantaron el montón de aventuras que vivieron los personajes y todas esas travesuras que hizo el zorro, también ver todo estos seres mitológicos chinos que me fascinan y cautivan y como se fortaleció la amistad de los protagonistas a lo largo de este camino que cruzaron. El final estuvo épico, me hizo llorar, emocionarme y asustarme, fue hermoso y dramático y aunque es algo agridulce, siento que fue perfecto. Sin duda alguna la recomiendo, es una historia que te va entretener de principio y a fin y además te deja un mensaje muy bonito; y claramente me la quiero repetir muchas veces más... En conclusión: ¡Esta increíble! 🦊

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