This is the story of a woman who is saved by a General and he welcomes her to his own house,
as she starts to live with him, she falls in love with him and tries to woe him, but the general is
loyal to his wife and could never betray her. Let’s see what happens as they move forward!
Welcome To Movie Recall. In Today's video,
we will be going through the 2008 Action Fantasy film : “Painted Skin”.
It's Time To Recall. Let's Get Started.
Turn On Subtitles and Spoilers Ahead! The movie starts and we see that the bandits
are partying after robbing a town and the men are gathered around a beautiful woman and
everyone wants to have her. Their leader however saves her and takes her to a room to satisfy his
own needs. He tells her that he can do anything for her and would give her anything she desires,
even his heart. The woman brushes his face with her sleek fingers and then she literally rips his
heart out. We then get to know that the woman’s name is Xiaowei and she is an evil fox spirit.
In order to maintain her beautiful appearance, she feasts on human hearts. She does so with wealthy
and powerful men because their hearts are more powerful. She has a weapon that can be used to
kill people and bring them back to life as well. As she kills the leader by ripping out his heart,
General Wang Sheng and his men attack the camp of the bandits and they fight for a long time
before the general finally kills them. He then chances upon the maiden who sits half-naked and
he tosses a shawl toward her to cover herself up. He then carries her out of the camp without
being aware of the identity of the woman. The other soldiers also welcome the girl and they
bring her to their town. Xiaowei has never felt compassionate toward any man before but
she ends up falling in love with General Wang. Much to her dismay, when she gets to the town,
she finds out that he has a beautiful wife named Peirong and they love each other very much.
The general’s wife welcomes Xiaowei and she starts to live with them. As time goes by,
her feelings for Wang start to grow. One night, someone breaks into the town and Wang goes out
to look for the intruder and when he finally finds him, he is unconscious. He sees that the intruder
is actually an old friend of his and he is also a former general named Pang Yong. Wang trusts the
man with his life, so, they bring him to Wang’s house and treat him. Peirong is shocked to see
the former general because we get to know that before she got married to the current general,
she used to be Pang Yong’s girlfriend before he left the town after a battle and never got back
for her. Peirong also notices that the arrival of the former general has been bothering her husband
so, she goes on to make it abundantly clear to him that he is the only person she loves. As they
talk, they start to get intimate and as he looks at her face, he sees that the woman whom he has
been talking to is not his wife, it’s Xiaowei. As he startles to see her face, he wakes up,
it turns out, he was dreaming all along. One thing he does not realize is that Xiaowei
is making him fall in love with her. And in his subconscious, he already has feelings for her.
Xiaowei is in her room when she is brought dinner by a maid but she refuses to eat it,
and the maid leaves, we then see a male spirit getting into her room, his name is Xiaoyi and he
is one of Xiaowei’s friends, he brings raw human hearts for her to eat. This is the person who
has been bringing her human hearts every day so that she can maintain her beauty without getting
suspected. On the other hand, in the town, a wave of fear goes by when the people discover so many
dead bodies with no hearts. Different rumors start to float around. Wang takes action and
doubles the security of the town being adamant that he is going to find the killer. Peirong,
on the other hand, starts to take care of the Pang Yong who wakes up and right away apologizes to her
for coming there out of the blue and he starts to walk away saying that he might have drank too
much. As he is about to leave, Wang asks him to stay in the town and help him find the killer but
Pang Yong refuses. That evening Pang Yong goes to a restaurant and there he meets a peculiar woman,
her name is Xia Bing and she tells him that she is a demon hunter. Yong however does not believe
her saying that he does not believe there is anything like demons out there. Peirong then
joins them and says that she thinks Xiaowei is a demon because the murders started in the town
ever since she made her way here. She then goes on to recall an incident in the shop where a man
was angry and was yelling but when Xiaowei asked the man to stop, he did. It felt like Xiaowei
could literally hypnotize other people. Peirong then decides that she is going to confirm
the identity of the woman. Peirong becomes more and more suspicious of Xiaowei after a diviner
told her that Xiaowei is actually a demon and then she accidentally cut Xiaowei but Xiaoweiwei showed
no sign of bleeding. She event takes her to a temple to see if anything happens to her when she
is in a holy place but nothing happens and Xiaowei stays totally normal. Peirong then approaches Pang
Yong for help. He tells him that she could ask her husband to do that for her but he is going to
laugh at her if she mentioned a demon in front of him. They go to the girl who claims to be a demon
killer and upon being told the whole story Xia Bing is interested in the case. In the next scene,
we see that Yong goes to the cemetery where the dead bodies of the recent victims have been kept.
They see that the hearts have been sucked out of the body in a very skillful manner,
they now know that whoever is doing this is very skillful and they know what they are doing. As he
is in the cemetery, Bing appears there and shows Yong a stone, this stone starts to glitter if it
is in the presence of a demon within 10 miles. She tells them that she has come to the town
using the stone but she has no luck when it comes to finding the spirit, not so far.
They further look into the things that have been going on in the town and come to figure out that
all the murders have been happening around the general’s house. They are now even more
suspicious of Xiaowei. That night, Yong comes across Xioyei, the chameleon spirit who shows
unrequited love towards Xiaowei and helps her obtain the human hearts she needs. He is about
to attack the girl who is the demon killer but Yong comes between them and then he manages to
run away. During the confrontation, Xia Bing’s leg gets injured and Yong tends to her wounds. They
then start to talk about the boy who attacked them and end up concluding that he was just a
thief. The demon killer then shows a stick to Yong telling him that it was given to her by her father
and she adds that no one would be able to take the cap off this stick unless they are a demon killer,
Yong tries to take it off but he is unable to do so. The next day, Xia Bing, Yong,
and the commander of the army go to see General Wang and tells him about Xiaowei being a demon.
He right away looks at his wife in disappointment being aware that she is the one who started the
rumor and he does not believe what he is told because he does not believe in demons. He then
tells them that he is not going to let an innocent girl get accused of murdering people. However, the
other people then tell him that there is no harm in conducting an inspection just to be sure.
As everyone gathers in the main hall, most of the soldiers take Xiaowei’s side and they are
just with her because of her beauty. The other party keeps insisting that the accusation must
be confirmed or denied with proper investigation. Yong then moves forward to cut the girl’s hand to
prove that she is a demon but Wang stops him saying the girl is innocent. Peirong then says
that if Wang does not want the girl to be bled, they can look for her demon mark and
that mark should be on her body. They then take her to a room and as they take off her clothes,
they are unable to find any marks. Wang then gets angry and asks everyone to get out of there. He
is absolutely furious at his wife as he thinks that she did everything out of pure jealousy.
He then asks his wife to apologize to Xiaowei and when she does, Xiaowei asks her to let her
be Wang’s mistress and it shocks both Peirong and Wang. Wang then goes on to tell Xiaowei there can
only be one first lady and that is his wife, Wang tells Xiaowei that he truly cares about her but he
is never going to betray his wife. That night, when Wang sleeps, he sees a dream in which he
sees Xiaowei naked in a pool, he gets close to her and they make love. Wang then wakes up and finds
himself covered in sweat and short of breath. He right away goes to see Xiaowei in her room and
when she starts to take off her clothes, he stops her saying that she is too good to be someone’s
mistress. He tells the woman that she deserves a loving husband and she asks him to be her husband
but Wang tells her that he really loves his wife and cannot break her heart. As he sees
the two talking, Xiaoyi turns jealous and attacks Wang, but is driven away. Amidst all the chaos,
Peirong notices that her husband was in Xiaowei’s room, she gets upset and tells
him that she is willing to let go of him if he is in love with Xiaowei but he denies it. Xiaoyi on
the other hand meets Xiaowei again later, she is so furious that she shouts at him to leave,
despite him warning her that love between demons and humans is impossible and pleading with her to
allow him to remain by her side. Xiaowei however tells him to get out of there and goes on to add
that she does not ever want to see his face again. The next night, Peirong's suspicions
about Xiaowei are confirmed when she chances upon Xiaowei peeling off her human skin right in front
of her and revealing her true form. Peirong and Xiaowei come to an agreement: Xiaowei promises
to stop killing people; in return, Peirong offers her place as Wang Sheng's rightful
spouse to Xiaowei and takes the blame for the murders. Xiaowei gives Peirong a potion to drink,
after which Peirong's hair turns white and her features become "demonic". The city's residents
are horrified when they see Peirong and think that she is the demon. Just as Peirong is about to be
killed by the citizens, Pang Yong and Xia Bing show up, save her, and bring her to a cave.
Peirong keeps telling Yong that she is a demon and Bing tells Yong that she knows what has happened
to her appearance as she recognizes the poison that has been given to her through the symptoms
she is showing. Bing says that she is close to death because the lighter the color of the poison,
the more fatal it is. Peirong is gradually turning white. Not long later, Wang Sheng, his soldiers,
and members of his household including Xiaowei come to the cave. Wang Sheng swears
to kill Peirong if she is really a demon and is responsible for all the murders but also expresses
his love for her at the same time. Peirong then impales herself with a dagger Wang is holding on
to and dies in his arms. Xiaowei tries to gain Wang Sheng's affection by moving closer to him,
but he takes no notice of her and continues to weep while holding on to his dead wife's body.
At this point, Xiaowei realizes that Wang Sheng will never truly love her. Pang Yong shouts to
everyone that Xiaowei is the real demon and then slashes her with his weapon to prove it,
but her body is as hard as steel. Wang Sheng approaches Xiaowei and begs her to bring Peirong
back to life. When Xiaowei asks him what she will get if she restores Peirong to life, Wang replies
that he loves her but he already has Peirong, and then kills himself. The heartbroken Xiaowei
screams and reveals her true demon form. She then willingly attempts to bring Wang back to life with
her magic powers in the form of a small orb. However, before she can do so, she is interrupted
by Xiaoyi , who snatches away the orb and reprimands her for sacrificing all the powers
she cultivated over thousands of years to save a man's life. He swallows the orb and tells her
he is going to bring her home. Pang Yong and Xia Bing fight with Xiaoyi and eventually slay
him but he kills Pang in the process. Xiaowei retrieves the orb from Xiaoyi's body and another
orb containing Xiaoyi's powers, and uses them to bring every dead person in the cave back to
life. In the last scene of the movie, Xiaowei is shown manifested in her white fox form without her
powers because she has already given them up to bring Peirong and Wang Sheng back to life. This
is where the movie ends. Thanks for watching.
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