From the well-edited trailer of “Painted Skin,” we expected a postmodern take on an age-old tale packed with enough terror to rival “The Ring.” Instead, the film settles for the tired formulas of faithful Confucian husband and wife, stoic kung-fu loner cliché (Yen) and boring Taoist adept unsure of herself (Sun). It could have been a superb Chinese gothic supernatural thriller, but instead it ends up as yet another generic Hong Kong movie, a hodgepodge period drama/kung-fu flick/romance comedy. But one with the dullest “jokes,” the dodgiest soundtrack (think of the ambient piano music at a Kowloon mall), and the sappiest and sloppiest happy ending ever.

Every Chinese person knows this ghost story from “Liaozhai Zhiyi,” a Qing Dynasty collection of macabre folk legends. The original tale is simple: man finds hot girl, takes her in, then one night finds her taking off her skin, laying it on the bed and applying makeup on it. Eeeek. The way this film starts off, it could have become a crime thriller (who’s the serial killer in town removing everybody’s hearts?). But then it rapidly swerves into potential erotica territory in the manner of “Lust Caution.” From here, they could have boiled up some sexual tension between the protagonist (Chen), his wife (Zhao) and the demon (Zhou). But nothing risqué happens. In fact, nothing fierce EVER happens throughout the entire film. The movie chooses not to sustain its initial mood of psychological menace and unpredictability.

The only reason to see it is for the terrific performance of an eerily demure, but frighteningly angry Zhou Xun. And props to the props—handsome everyday objects of a rarely depicted Han dynasty in full detail. But that’s it. Otherwise, this is an unimaginative TV movie script sadly wasted on the silver screen and several big-name actors capable of so much more.

2 Stars by Johannes Pong.

Directed by Gordon Chan. Starring Zhou Xun, Vicky Zhao, Donnie Yen, Chen Kun, Betty Sun. Category IIB, 103 minutes.