This romantic fantasy, based on an ancient Chinese legend opens with Abott Fahai and his apprentice Neng Ren as they pass through a magical doorway into a blizzard and confront a demon, which they capture. We then see a group of men, including herbalist Xu Xian, picking herbs on a mountain while two snake demons; Qingqing, the Green Snake, and Susu, the White Dragon, watch them. Qingqing causes Xu Xian to fall and he lands in a lake; Susu rescues him and from that moment he is in love with her even though he isn't even sure that he didn't imagine her. Susu has also developed feelings for him so she and Qingqing take human form and start looking for him in a city. Fahai and Neng Ren are also in the city looking for a bat demon that has infected several people. Susu finds Xu Xian and they fall in love; she also helps him to prepare medicine that cure those infected by the bat demon; an action that is spotted by Fahai… even though she has helped he sees it as his duty to deal with any demon; to soon becomes clear that Susu and Xu Xian's love is threatened and their attempts to preserve it could threaten everybody.

I must admit when I started to watch this I thought it was going to be a typical wuxia film rather than a fantasy with magic and talking animals… Once I'd come to terms with this I found it to be an enjoyable film. There is a good amount of action as well as some funny moments. The central romance is fun enough to watch even though we know things will eventually go wrong in some way. It is clearly marketed as a Jet Li film but even though he plays a major character, Abbot Fahai, he isn't the most important character… these are Xu Xian and Susu, played by Raymond Lam and Shengyi Huang respectively. Also of note are Charlene Choi, Qingqing, and Zhang Wen, Neng Ren. These all do a pretty good job. The animal effects are good but unfortunately the CGI used in most of the action scenes is a bit too obvious. There are a few mildly scary moments but I suspect anybody who is old enough to enjoy a subtitled film will be old enough to watch this. Overall a fairly enjoyable fantasy film.

These comments are based on watching the 'International Version' in Mandarin with English subtitles.

This was a good action packed film with stunning special effects and CGI. The film featured a love struck demon snake who falls in love with a mortal man. It has monks who battle against the evil demons. It features an epic battle between good and evil while at the same time you feel empathy for the evil because it is motivated by love. It is not a martial arts film by any means but more of a love story that just happens to have monks who know some form of martial arts but the rely heavily on supernatural powers given to them by a deity or higher power. Even though it was in Mandarin with captions, it was still a good film for anyone who enjoys foreign films and enjoys watching a variety of films from many cultures.

Although Jet Li is essentially the main actor, Raymond Lam steals the show (in my opinion) as herb picker Xu Xian. The beautiful Shengyi Huang is well cast as White Snake and the chemistry between Raymond and Shengyi is wonderful. This is a love story set against a fantasy action adventure backdrop, and the genres blend beautifully. The action is just as amazing as the love story. I did find some scenes to be a bit slapstick silly, but in general this CGI-heavy film was quite fascinating. The flood scene in the final act was truly awesome. I did find the ending a bit overuse of CGI to a point where I almost lost what was actually happening, but the love story portrayed by Raymond and Shengyi swiftly pulled me back to their reality and it was simply spectacular. This is a very imaginative film.