Comments

All in All, I thought this movie was good, but definetely not as good as other recent Chinese period/historical films. In particular, Hero. During the credits I saw Colombia Pictures had a large credit, and it seems like a more westernized take than Hero. Perhaps they had a lot of influence in the content of the film.

I didn't find any one performance lacking, nor were there any spectacular ones. I'm not sure what the goal was in casting Kiichi Nakai; he did an adequate job as the lonely warrior who just wants to go home. But the part should have been played a little more seriously. Maybe it was the language barrier, as you can tell he delivered his Mandarin lines phoenetically. There were a handful of smirks in some serious moments that I thought didn't really belong.

Perhaps this will do what Hero and CTHD could not: be nominated and win an Academy Award. Maybe the westernization of this movie will appeal to the Academy, seeing as Hero wasn't as well received due to the fact that understanding the dialogue was a lot more instrumental in taking in the whole picture. This was much less the case in this film.

A lot less grand in scope than both Hero and CTHD, (and not nearly as beautifully shot as Hero, due to the wonderful Chris Doyle), in the end, this rates as an above average movie, but not as influential as the other two.

3.5 stars out of 5