[[quoteright:339:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_sorceror_and_the_white_snake.jpg]]

''The Sorcerer and the White Snake'' is a 2011 Chinese film directed by Creator/ChingSiuTung. It stars Jet Li, Eva Huang and Raymond Lam. It tells the story of demon-hunting monk Fahai (Creator/JetLi) as well as the demon White Snake's (Eva Huang) forbidden love affair with a human (Raymond Lam) based on the chinese Legend of the White Snake ([[IHaveManyNames among other names]]).

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!!This film contains examples of:

* AdaptationalHeroism: In most versions of the White Snake story, Fahai is an out-an-out villain, a turtle who pretended to be a Buddhist monk so he could ruin Susu and Xu Xian's relationship, and [[GreenEyedMonster steal her power for himself]]. Here, he's a WellIntentionedExtremist HunterOfMonsters.
* ArcWords: "Amitabha"
* AmnesiacLover: Xu Xian, after the ritual being performed on him was interrupted.
* BittersweetEnding: The film's ending. [[spoiler:Susu the white snake and her lover are presumably separated for a very long time. Even Green Snake leaves Neng Ren because she didn't want to suffer with love like her sister did.]] On the other hand, [[spoiler:Fahai gets over his hatred of all demons and welcomes back Neng Ren.]]
* CoverBlowingSuperpower: Susu inadvertently reveals her true nature to Fahai when she uses her powers to boost the strength of the medicine Xu Xian is making for the victims of the demon attack that Fahai is investigating.
* CurbStompBattle: Fahai, with both an AdaptationalHeroism and AdaptationalBadass, delivers this most of the time. Even in a weakened state, Fahai still dishes this out to the Green Snake as he quickly frees himself by piercing through her stomach, and when Susu insists on killing Fahai, Fahai unleashes the full extent of his spiritual magic knowledge and draws power from Buddha to completely destroy her.
* CurbStompCushion: The final battle between Fahai and the sisters. Although Fahai is clearly superior to them, they still managed to put up a prolonged fight against him in close-quarters, with Fahai actually straining himself to push them back. Their attempts to flood Jingshan also forced Fahai to leave the temple and focus on keeping them at bay. At the end, Sussu actually managed to deal serious injury to Fahai, with Susu's thousand snakes managing to bite him numerous times and her furious attacks pushing him back.
* DemonSlaying: Fahai's and Neng Ren's job although usually they just capture them. The former [[KnightTemplar wouldn't care]] whether it's a good or bad demon while the latter was [[{{Metamorphosis}} turned into a demon against his will]].
* DeusExMachina: After Fahai was beaten up by Susu during the climax, a light from heaven granted him new powers represented by several luminescent hands. [[spoiler:Also happened to Susu after saying the [[ArcWords arc word]]. She was allowed to say her last goodbye to Xu Xian before being finally sealed in the Pagoda.]]
* DarkActionGirl: The female Bat Demons, the Fox Demons and the Ice Harpy.
* DarkIsNotEvil: [[spoiler:Neng Ren after becoming a bat demon. He uses his newfound ability to fly to save his fellow monks after the pagoda is flood. This is when Fahai [[HeelRealization starts to turn around.]]]]
* ElementalPowers: The two snake sisters demonstrated instances of MakingASplash (including whole tsumamis) and DishingOutDirt as part of their KiManipulation.
* FemmeFatale: The Ice Harpy enchants men and if they ever try to leave her she kills them.
* FoxyVixen: The Fox Demons try to seduce Fahai.
* TheGreatSerpent: Bai Su-su's version of Lady Whitesnake is probably the ''largest'' depiction in media; when she battles Fahai in the finale, the monk have to use ''himself'' as PalatePropping to hold her jaws open.
* InterspeciesRomance: Susu the White Snake fell in love with Xu Xian, a human.
* InvincibleHero: Fahai in this film is easily the most powerful, unstoppable version of the character in all versions of the White Snake story, helped by the fact that he's a genuine head Buddhist monk with several years of experience in using spiritual magic and fighting demons, unlike his usually villainous personas, meaning he has both the commitment and the power to be a legitimate and terrifyingly powerful priest. He is able to utterly decimate any Demon he fights with his magic, trapping them with spells, including even a combination of several demons in Xu Xian's body, which he casually restrains whereas entire groups of monks can barely keep him at bay. Indeed, whereas in previous versions, the White and Green Snakes can more or less match and even exceed his power, here Fahai is clearly above them: He barely breaks a sweat against the Green Snake even as she pushes herself to fight him off, and the White Snake's shows of telekinetic power are easily neutralized before he blasts her with a storm of debris and would have killed her then had he not decided to spare her. He even fights both simultaneously in his human form and ''wins'', shattering their swords with his monk staff after beating them back in an exchange of martial prowess. Even after having spend much of his strength keeping Jishan from being entirely destroyed, he is still able to critically injure the Green Snake, and that was after he was bitten by numerous poisonous snakes from Susu that he repels despite his injuries. By the time he channels Buddha's power, he utterly annahilates Susu and imprisons her with ease.
* KiManipulation: The monks and the demons fight with these.
* LighterAndSofter: Compared to Film/GreenSnake, the 1993 film based on the same legend starring Maggie Cheung. It had explicit sex scenes, darker themes and characters, [[spoiler: and everyone (white snake, the scholar, Fahai's disciples, and many more people) but Fahai and the green snake dies in the end, with the former burdened with the guilt of all those deaths.]]
** Still DarkerAndEdgier than the folktale the film is based on, which (usually) ended with BabiesEverAfter.
* LightIsNotGood: The Fox Demons all wear white clothing, but they are far from being nice.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Very, very much.
* MagicKnight: Susu and Qingqing both reveal themselves to be this, mixing magic with impeccable swordsmanship while fighting Fahai. Fahai, however, simply responds by fighting with a monk staff mixed with magic and wins.
* {{Metamorphosis}}: Neng Ren slowly changed into a bat demon after he was bitten by one.
* NiceGuy: Fahai here is significantly better than any previous depictions of the character and genuinely seeks to do good by helping people and defeating Demons. His behavior here is much nicer: Not only is his hunger for power non-existent, even being willing to pass on his mantle to another monk, but he even actually shows sympathy for Susu and Xu Xian's relationship: He genuinely regrets the fact that a man as nice as Xu Xian would suffer from Susu leaving him, but believes it would be better for him to suffer only quickly as Susu's demonic power wouldn't fit with Xu Xian's humanity and gradually change him for the worse, and gives Susu a chance to leave peacefully and sincerely tries to comfort Xu Xian. He also offers the Snake Sisters a chance to leave in peace in the finale and only fights back when they attack him.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: By all parties! [[spoiler: Fahai thinks all demons are no good for humans so he tries to get rid of Susu. This causes Xu Xian to steal a herb to save her freeing demons who possess him. Fahai tries exorcising the demons from him, but is interrupted by Susu who thinks he is trying to keep them apart.]]
* LightningBruiser: Although he is just a human monk, Fahai displays incredulously superhuman levels of physical power, which none of his fellow monks display. It's unclear whether or not he is using his magic, because he achieves all these physical feats without any signs of divine energy, though there is the chance that his magic may be empowering him even without him using it to cast spells, but either it's from decades of training or supernatural empowerment, Fahai quite literately has everything to qualify as a Lightning Bruiser: He is strong and fast enough to fight and overwhelm demons in close-quarters, even simultaneously taking both Susu and Qingqing and reacting to all their attacks before beating them back, and can easily jump high into the air and through small footholds.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The bat demons that Fahai and Neng Ren fought.
* UnskilledButStrong: The Snake Sisters appear to be this, which is justified as they've spent most of their time meditating, meaning they are exceptionally powerful but lack much actual combat experience. Meanwhile, Fahai is more than capable of matching them in strength, if not straight up surpassing them, and has far superior skill, allowing the monk to easily defeat them.
* SceneryPorn
* SealedEvilInACan: The demons sealed in the Lei Feng Pagoda.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Fahai insists that humans and demons being in close contact can only cause problems, and to be fair, its implied that in a lifetime of work as an exorcist, he hasn't seen a counterexample yet. But the disaster that came from Susu and Xu Xian's marriage is the direct result of his ham-fisted actions to separate them.
* SnakePeople: How Susu and Qingqing appear throughout most of the film when they are not [[VoluntaryShapeshifting humans]], [[ScaledUp giant]] [[ThisWasHisTrueForm snakes]], or [[{{kaiju}} even bigger snakes]].
* StarCrossedLovers
* VanHelsingHateCrimes
* WarriorMonk: Fahai. He may well be among the most powerful combination of spiritual magic and melee-fighting monks ever. He is able to use all sorts of sacred artifacts and powerful divine energy to easily dispatch all demons he is faced with, and is an excellent martial artist able to defeat the Snake Sisters simultaneously by himself. In the end, he even displays the ability to straight up call upon Buddha's power to become essentially a bodhisattva with divine arms.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Fahai assumes all demons are either evil or dangerous for humans. They must either be imprisoned or destroyed. He acknowledges Susu is benevolent, yet still demands she either leave or be imprisoned. It is only after his monastery is flooded he considers he might have been too stubborn and by the end seems to accept demons can live alongside humans. To be fair to him though he does vanquish many demons who are causing harm to humans, and he ''did'' give some of them a chance to leave before they're sealed away.
* WizardDuel: Numerous times, Fahai gets into this with the Snake Sisters. Typical for being a real Warrior Monk, Fahai's magic manipulates golden sacred buddhist energy and he shows not only full mastery of his magic, but also supernatural reflexes and fluidity in using his powers, defending first before retaliating with powerful bursts of energy, while the sisters display mostly destructive magic, much more aggressive and ferocious compared to Fahai's fluid magical skills.
* WireFu
* WombLevel: Qingqing will not stop attacking even after one's been SwallowedWhole, so esophagus level would probably be more polite.
* {{Wuxia}}
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