White Snake II: Green Snake

autumnglory May 4, 2022

8

So...this movie. Light Chaser outdid themselves again with the gorgeous animation. It's just, the story this time around is even more wonky than the previous movie. By the end, there's still questions unanswered, like, what happened to Xuan and White Snake and Xuan's child? So if we assume that White Snake reincarnated in the end and met Green Snake, that's great, but the progression to that is a bit weird. Why the "love triangle" for Green Snake? I think that was unnecessary, especially considering that unlike her sister, she's less of a gentle/soft person. That's not to say she isn't a caring person, she has her moments, in the first movie and in this one, but a romance for her is not needed. We can have a badass heroine without romance, please and thank you China...One of the "love interests" was Sima Guanren, the leader of the Horsehead gang. He redeemed himself and died as a hero, but I felt it a waste he had to die. Even more than that was the first woman Green Snake met in Asuraville, Sun. Sun was quickly killed not even a third or fourth of the way into the movie...the weirdest thing by far of the movie is the love between Green Snake and the masked man, who is later revealed to be White Snake. While the film never explicitly shows any romantic attraction between the two, like kissing, it is obvious enough from Green Snake talking about how she would fall in love with a person with a good heart, even if they are not strong. Possibly the movie did not make their romance more obvious because it would be uncomfortable with Western audiences i.e. incest. I was and still kind of am uncomfortable about it. Despite that, it does have connections to the original tale of White Snake.  In the original tale, Xiao Qing/Green Snake was a male snake that wanted to marry Xiao Bai/White Snake when he first saw her. Xiao Qing wanted to take her by force, but was defeated by Xiao Bai. He then asks to be Xiao Bai's servant and follow her forever. Xiao Bai thinks it's weird to have a male servant stay with her, so she rejected the idea. Then Xiao Qing turned himself into a young female snake, which solved the problem. Xiao Qing followed Xiao Bai thereafter. They eventually get very close and become sisters. Overall, this is a good movie with beautiful animation and stunning fight scenes, held back by its nonsensical plot elements and squick factor resulting from its adherence to the original source material.