Green Snake 青蛇, Flying Dagger 神經刀與飛天貓, & New Dragon Gate Inn 新龍門客棧 [Subtited]

1993 · KonCategoryIII

Green Snake (1993 film) Green Snake is a 1993 Hong Kong fantasy drama film written, directed and produced by Tsui Hark . The film is based on the novel of the same title by Lilian Lee , itself based on the Chinese folk tale Legend of the White Snake , which depicts the love story between the female snake spirit Bai Suzhen , named White Snake in the film, and the male Human Xu Xian , named Hsui Xien in the film. Green Snake depicts the romance between the two, but features both White Snake and her sister Green Snake , originally a supporting character in the folk tale, as the two main characters. In Green Snake , the two sisters take on a Human form to try to live among Humans; however, Green Snake struggles heavily to adapt, and the sisters are threatened by several demon-hunters, including the Buddhist monk Fat-hoi . Maggie Cheung , Joey Wong , Vincent Zhao and Wu Hsing-kuo star as the four aforementioned characters, with Indian actress Nagma notably featured in a pivotal scene. [ 1 ] Plot The movie draws heavily upon the Buddhist belief of Saṃsāra and the cycle of reincarnation. A Buddhist monk named Fat-hoi ( Vincent Zhao ) has trained for 20 years to banish demons from the Human World. Fat-hoi does not believe in non-human beings are capable of improving themselves spiritually. He encounters a spider demon who has taken the form of a Buddhist priest. He captures the spider demon, who pleads with him as it has been spiritually refining itself for 200 years to be able to reincarnate. Fat-hoi ignores his pleas, traps him in a magical cauldron, and leaves the demon under a gazebo. When the Buddhist beads of the demon continue to shine, Fat-hoi realizes he may have made a mistake in interfering with the Spider's path to enlightenment. A storm takes place while Fat-hoi goes into the forest and he attacks two Snake spirits. But after he notices that they were only preventing rain from hitting a woman giving birth, he releases them. He is haunted by images of the female body of the mother who gave birth. The two snakes, White Snake ( Joey Wong ) and Green Snake ( Maggie Cheung ), are on the rooftop of a feast. Green Snake participates while White Snake sees local scholar Hsui Xien ( Wu Hsing-Kuo ) in a nearby building. The two have been training for many centuries to take human form. White Snake is the more experienced one and falls in love with Hsui Xien. She plans to have a family with him and continue her attempts to reincarnate as a human; Green Snake is the younger and more impulsive of the two sisters, but she is more prone to indulge in sensuality. They move into a house created with their magic and start a successful medical practice in town. Other than Hsui Xien's visit, the two get another visit from a buffoonish Taoist whom Green Snake leaves the household to take care of. Because of White Snake's beautiful charms, Hsui Xien, once known as the toughest and most dedicated scholar of the village, starts to lose his reputation. In another heavy storm, a flood ravages the village. White Snake and Green Snake help vanquish the flood and are helped by Fat-hoi, whom they remembered from the forest. After the flood is gone, White Snake and Green Snake tend to the medical needs of the villagers and become greatly respected. However, Green Snake slowly starts to envy White Snake and yearn for the affections of a human, often using Hsui Xien as an experiment. Though she catches them multiple times, White Snake usually shrugs this off. One day while teaching, Hsui Xien spontaneously comes back to see White Snake but instead sees a large reptilian tail in their bathing room. He escapes and becomes paranoid of the symbolic snake-related objects in the village because of the Dragon Boat Festival. Drunk from gifts from the villagers, White Snake and Green Snake take advantage and lie to him to seem as if he was hallucinating. Because the festival is near, White Snake pushes Green Snake to leave the village knowing that the Xionghuang wine consumed only on this day will make Green Snake reveal her true form (due to her inexperience). Green Snake sulks, refusing to leave because of her envy towards White Snake and Hsui Xien. The night of the festival, White Snake drags an obviously-scared Hsui Xien to drink the Xionghuang wine together. Since he already suspects his wife is a snake, Hsui Xien instead secretly dumps the wine into their pond to stop her from drinking it, unaware Green Snake is hiding in the pond. White Snake is unable to prevent Hsui Xien from seeing Green Snake's true form and he dies from shock. They are interrupted by the Taoist and his two apprentices again, who White Snake hastily disposes of. She decides to go to Kwun Lun Mountain to obtain the Lin-Chi Herb to bring him back to life, but because it is guarded by a Holy Crane, Green Snake decides to help out of guilt. Fat-hoi notices their presence and immediately follows them. After obtaining the Lin-Chi Herb, White Snake leaves Green Snake to fig