Green Snake (1993 film)

Green Snake
Traditional Chinese青蛇
Simplified Chinese青蛇
Literal meaningThe Blue/Green Snake
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinQīng Shé
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingCing¹ Se²
Directed byTsui Hark
Written byTsui Hark
Based onGreen Snake
by Lilian Lee
Produced byTsui Hark
Ng See Yuen
StarringMaggie Cheung
Joey Wong
Vincent Zhao
Wu Hsing-kuo
Release date
  • 1993 (1993)
Running time
99 minutes
CountryBritish Hong Kong
LanguageCantonese

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 is 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 and 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 actresses Nagma and Sridevi notably featured in a pivotal scene.[1]

  1. ^ "The Green Snake hits Hong Kong". South China Morning Post. 19 March 2013.