Visually good-looking and pretty entertaining (a bit too long maybe with 125 minutes and the first half i liked the best) Chinese fantasy
adventure with a mix of CGI and "real" sets and make-up effects and based on the asian mythology of Fox Spirits. The first time i got to
know about these folktale creatures was with South Korean director Lee Sung-gang's wonderful animation "Yobi the Five Tailed Fox"
and apparently these Fox Spirit creatures are considered evil to humans as they have to steal a human soul to become immortal (or to
become a real human, something like that, i'm to lazy to look it up in wiki).

The Story (i think):

The Red Fox spirits have had a meeting (in a cave) led by the supreme Nine Tailed Fox and he tells his students that they have to find
their specific human to steal it's soul and become a real human. The one finding the White Elixir can become immortal.
In the films intro we get to see how a human kid saves the life of a fox, and the kid then grows up as a Half Human and Half Red Fox
and became adopted by the Red Fox Spirits tribe.
He's "Thirteen" or Xiao/Shisan Bai (Xian Li) a joker and not taken seriously by the other fox spirits, but he's our main protagonist in
this film and he also is sent out to find his human and to steal it's soul. The Fox Spirits with shapeshifting ability and other powers.

This film has three parts, 1. The Fox Spirits tribe 2. Thirteen on the road with Wang Zijin 3. in Jiankang City.
Thirteen goes to the human village (looking human but with shapeshifting abilities) where he meets the scholar student Wang Zijin
(Chen Li-Nong) who's looking for his brother and for his runaway donkey. They experience some fun adventures and they become
buddies, but Wang Zijin unfortunately is Thirteens chosen human with the elixir Fox Spirit Thirteen needs.

The Fox spirit boss believes Thirteen to be the one who could find the White Elixir, giving immortality, and he has sent a spy, the
trickster master (Jiang Chao) to keep an eye on Thirteen and Wang Zijin using his great shapeshifting powers.
When the buddy duo reaches the city of Jiankang, we enters the second part of the movie, and this is the place for Wang Zijin to do
his imperial exam. Also, it's the place where unexperienced Zijin meets and falls in love with Lotus Flower Ghost Prostitute Ying Lian,
played by the Uyghur actress and model Hani Kyzu or Hankiz Omar.

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen and with a mandarin audio DTS 5.1 or DD 5.1 with english subtitles, region 3.
Extras a theatrical trailer, a featurette and a gallery