Asia is rich of folklores from its many different cultures, heritage and environment which are more than worth lavish cinematic treatments. But rather than introducing some worldwidely unfamiliar ones, movie producers are still thinking it’s better to remake some those have been adapted countless times and just furnish them with the advanced special effect technology. So, then we get a list of renewing, repolishing, reproducting like “Monkey King”, “Chinese Ghost Story”, “Mulan”, and “White Snake Legend”, that has since a long long time become a major subject of myriad Chinese opera, films and television series. “White Snake Legend”, which existed as oral traditions before any written compilation, has became a classical theme of a variety of literal forms including story, ballad, precious scroll, fiction, historical novel, script for story-telling, drama, Tanci, as well as movie, TV play, cartoon, and comic strips. It has therefore experienced an ever expanding influence and becomes widely known in China, boasting one of four top Chinese folk stories and has been ranked into the first batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Furthermore, the story also widely spreads in many other Asian countries, which indirectly answered why it’s always so popular to be adapted. Has been made eight times into television series, and also has been adapted five times into live action feature since 1956 Japanese film made by Toho in collaboration with Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers titled “The Legend of the White Serpent”, now, the story that has evolved from horror to romance over the centuries will meet its newest big screen refurnishing, "The Sorcerer and the White Snake", from the hands of Hong Kong famous action choreographer and director Tony Ching Siu-tung who will breathe a new life that, unsurprisingly, is ‘3D’ included.

       

The tale goes that a white snake came to the human world as she was longing for human life (another version holds that she wanted to repay an obligation), and married a scholar named Xu Xian. However, such marriage was opposed by Fa Hai, a Buddhist monk in Jinshan Temple, who maintained that coexistence of human and evil spirit was unallowable. He then suppressed the white snake under Leifeng Pagoda at the bank of the West Lake of Hangzhou. Up to now, even tourists and visitors may still recall the story as they view and admire the scenic spot in Hangzhou. Angie Chiu's famous Taiwan TV series “White Snake Legend” and Tsui Hark's directed “Green Snake” have already successfully become nearly twenty-year classic adaptations of the story, but this time around, the new production certainly has a few aces up its sleeves. Other than Tony Ching who is still one of the best choreographer and stunt directors in the business with movies like “Hero”, “House of Flying Daggers”, and “Curse of the Golden Flower” in his resume, the movie also boasting names like Jet Li, one of the best martial arts actors working today who will play the iconic monk Fa Hai, Eva Huang, Raymond Lam, and Charlene Choi, popular young Asian actors who will respectively plays White Snake, Xu Xian and Green Snake. Vivian Hsu, Miriam Yeung, Chapman To, Law Kar Ying, Lam Suet and Sonija Kwok also have been gathered to form a magnificent version of a group of demon characters. While “Ashes of Time”, “Let the Bullets Fly” and more classic blockbusters' style designer William Chang exhibits the peak of his imagination, creating “The Sorcerer and the White Snake” into a luminous 'feast for the eyes,' allowing viewers to experience the mythological atmosphere through the styling. Furthermore, in terms of styling, the movie will certainly perfect the details and elements of characters and sceneries through exquisite FX and CG technology.

       

No official English plot synopsis has been released for the film but it likely, before some changes and new materials added, will follow this original storyline:

"White Snake Legend" is an old account about a white snake who lived in the West Lake (Xi Hu) near Hangzhou. The snake possessed magical powers and worked hard at bettering herself. Eventually, she was able to take the form of a beautiful woman called "Lady White." She rescued and befriended another green snake of lesser powers who becomes her handmaiden. Her name was "Xiao Qing". They set up a home in Hangzhou and met a young trainee apothecary called Xu Xian. Lady White falls in love with Xu Xian and marries him. Together, they set up a Herbalist shop and White Snake used her magical powers to make the medicines especially potent. Hence, their business began to do very well. A Buddhist monk, named Fa Hai warned Xu Xian that his wife was actually a large snake and that if she drank wine she would change her into her real self. Xu Xian took the opportunity of the occasion of the Dragon Boat races and the announcement of Lady White's news that she was pregnant to press her to drink some wine. Lady White was frightened because she knew that if she did this she might turn her back into her original snake form. Xu Xian continued to urge her so she agreed to have one sip hoping that her magic would protect her. However, because of her pregnancy, her magical powers were weakened and she could feel herself changing. She ran into the bedroom to hide her transformation however Xu Xian followed her and witnessed it. When he saw her in her old form he died of fright. Then Lady White went to a magic mountain, fought off the stork guardian and brought home the powerful herb that restored him back to life. Far from being grateful, Xu Xian became more scared of her than ever. He went to the Buddist Monastery by the Yangtse River where the Monk protected him. White Snake came and pleaded with the Monk Fa Hai, but to no avail. Then in anger, she gathered together a great army of underwater creatures. Neither side won this battle. The monk tried to capture Lady White and failed while Lady White could not get her husband back. However, Fa Hai realised that one reason that his magical powers were not working, was because of Lady White's pregnant state. So Fa Hai advised Xu Xian to go home and live with Lady White until the birth of their child.

           

Snaky additional trivias:

# Originally titled “Madame White Snake” in English, the film logo was unveiled during the production wrap press conference with the new official English title, “It's Love”. However, the English title was changed to “The Sorcerer and the White Snake” when the distributor was announced.

# Taiwan and Hong Kong Leading actors Ethan Ruan, Peter Ho, Mark Chao and Raymond Lam fought for the lead role in the film. In the end, Lam got the role. It was reported that Ruan and Chow were dropped as they were deemed to be not well known enough in China and Ho's image did not suit the male lead.

# Jet Li was announced to be part of the cast during early pre-production however his role was not revealed until September 2010, when some actors' roles were announced.

# Wen Zhang, Chinese young actor who plays an autistic son and stars alongside Jet Li in “Ocean Heaven”, was specially invited by the famous action star to play his disciple Neng Ren.

# The director revealed that the film will have some characters that previous versions of the story do not have, making the line-up of characters even richer and more three-dimensional.

# Regarding the action scenes, Jet Li bluntly proclaimed that in the past ten years, he had never been this exhausted. "After fighting the White Snake, fight the Green Snake. After fighting the Green Snake, then fight the Demon. After fighting this Demon, then fight another Demon. After fighting this Demon, then fight the Water Monster. Everyday on set I was letting out a big sigh."

# Tony Ching stated that there are altogether 1800 scenes, solely stunt scenes take up 1500. Lead actors even became "trapeze artists", as even Charlene who is afraid of heights hung from a wire 80 meters high. It is all to make the characters' actions appear to be even more like a realistic fantasy.

# Vivian Hsu who have continuous fight scenes and the majority of her scenes are with Jet Li was 'finalized filming twice', because of the high expectations of the director and it was necessary to re-film a fair number of scenes.