Could be too much competition among screenplay writers, I mean there are 8 writers mentioned on IMDb for this movie - actually we can see more writers then actors here. Could be, they just didn't cooperate that well... The general idea is good, makes lots of sense, three people swear loyalty to each other, but one is ready to sacrifice the pledge and to kill anybodybody who stands in his way, to fulfill his dream. Still the script doesn't hold, sth is wrong, audience get confused: what's going on with this girl? what was it with court machinations? I had this feeling, maybe each writer had his own agenda and tried to convert the audience during the short sequence he was assigned to... Another huge problem is the cast. There is sth really misplaced there. Jet Lee should not be the main hero here, he can be truly great as a particular kind of hero(a rather simple and silent one) but there is no way he could adjust himself to play a very complicated character. Andy Lau on the other hand is very good - only, he doesn't have that much to do. Still he does his best and somehow holds the story together even though the character he plays is a bit, well, underwritten (script again, sigh...) And of course big thumbs up (is not yet copyrighted, is it ;) for Kaneshiro Takeshi, with the same complain: I so much wish he had more to play. Jinglei Xu doesn't have much to do
- so she doesn't. Music, SIGH... one part (I think around the battle of Suzhou?) it was actually sth like the Pirates of Caribbean; apart from that rather funny piece you mostly get sort of generic holywoodish "War and Love" tunes (fortunately interrupted with a kind of Beijing Opera). Still is not a totally bad movie, cinematography is excellent, there is a bit of decent acting (two bits ;) very good fighting choreography and impressive costumes.