Recap: In an ancient Chinese kingdom a noble has murdered his brother and intends to wed his widow in order to become the next emperor. But in doing so he creates a scenario where his claim to the throne are weak and many foes lurk in the shadows to either avenge his brother or to claim power to themselves. Everyone has an agenda and no one will stop at murder. The new emperor must get rid of the prince, his brother's son that has legitimate claims to the throne. The princess clearly wants to avenge his father, but also has fallen in love with the empress maid. This maid is the sister to a general and daughter to the minister that wants to claim power for his own family. And in the middle of it all, the empress herself, that is unhappily in love with the prince, jealous of her maid and wants the throne for herself. But with so many players, the game is too complex to evolve as anyone planned. (The movie is apparently loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet)
Comments: Very poetic. True to recent Chinese tradition of making movies it is stunningly beautiful. Every move choreographed, bright colors and abundant scenes with slow motion. It is very much like a long, visual poem. Poetic. Touching and stunningly beautiful. Truly a well made movie. However, true to recent Chinese tradition of movies it is also far too focused on the visual, with the storytelling taking the back seat. How beautiful it is, without a strong story no movie can be a complete success. And when fights are over choreographed its meaning starts to lack plausibility. The story becomes too hard to believe in and then the stunningly beautiful visual parts are not enough. For some stretches it becomes too slow, to dull, even if it is in the middle of an assassination attempt or sword fights. It's stretched far too thin. But, for its genre it is clearly a step in the right direction. Compared to other Chinese movies, for example Flying Daggers, this is much better at keeping tempo. Not quite there yet, but clearly better than movies before it.
Also the fairytale components are kept to a minimum. Not so poetic maybe, but it makes the movie better. They are there, a few brief details. But not disturbingly much as the tree running that in my opinion crippled Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for example.
Still, for all its faults it is actually quite a good movie. I think it could have been better with a stronger story, a higher tempo and more focus on authenticity and plausibility. But the strong visual parts make up for a lot of it and I enjoyed it.
7/10
Comments: Very poetic. True to recent Chinese tradition of making movies it is stunningly beautiful. Every move choreographed, bright colors and abundant scenes with slow motion. It is very much like a long, visual poem. Poetic. Touching and stunningly beautiful. Truly a well made movie. However, true to recent Chinese tradition of movies it is also far too focused on the visual, with the storytelling taking the back seat. How beautiful it is, without a strong story no movie can be a complete success. And when fights are over choreographed its meaning starts to lack plausibility. The story becomes too hard to believe in and then the stunningly beautiful visual parts are not enough. For some stretches it becomes too slow, to dull, even if it is in the middle of an assassination attempt or sword fights. It's stretched far too thin. But, for its genre it is clearly a step in the right direction. Compared to other Chinese movies, for example Flying Daggers, this is much better at keeping tempo. Not quite there yet, but clearly better than movies before it.
Also the fairytale components are kept to a minimum. Not so poetic maybe, but it makes the movie better. They are there, a few brief details. But not disturbingly much as the tree running that in my opinion crippled Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for example.
Still, for all its faults it is actually quite a good movie. I think it could have been better with a stronger story, a higher tempo and more focus on authenticity and plausibility. But the strong visual parts make up for a lot of it and I enjoyed it.
7/10