But I LOVE this movie!

I love its restraint. In the acting, in the beautiful color palatte, in the action. I'm Korean, so I can relate to that aesthetic. Usually when I think of Chinese art I think brilliance and energy and vitalic reds and golds... I like how this movie subverted my expectations, it showed me a different Chinese aesthetic (probably one that was there all along and I was ignorant of). It's so quiet on the surface yet there's so much violence and poetry and death, like, well, Shakespeare :) I think it's a beautiful aesthetic departure from the kind of Chinese historic-fantasy movies that I've come to expect (I like those too).

One last thing... Zhang Ziyi's final scene... loved it!