I'd like to give this 5 stars for the acting and cinematography, but the martial arts are most impressive to viewers who haven't seen the best of real Wuxia action. This is a wonderful, relatively painless introduction of the heroic Chinese errant swordsman genre, but most of what Western critics praised as originality is a careful duplication of the genre norms - which were established and perfected more than 40 years previously. As far as the fighting goes, Michelle Yeoh fills her role extremely well, with a grace far beyond the other stars. Chow Yun Fat is a very fine actor who was wise enough to stay out of Wuxia action before this film. Zhang Ziyi may be an acquired taste: I found her lovely and charming, although my Western sensibilities find her character's behavior unforgivable. Although she is quite graceful, Michelle Yeoh eclipses her in all aspects of fighting. It was very pleasing to see the wonderful Cheng Pei Pei in the genre that made her a star.
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There is nothing special about this film. Just a long, boring self-indulged piece of garbage with flowy art to stimulate the mind. Whoopee-doodles. Cry me a river. :p
While I agree that it is rather humorous to see Western critics call it original, I would still give the film 5 stars as I feel its a distillation of many of the best elements of the Wuxia pian. Including the wirework.
I have never understood the fascination with the grossly overrated Wong Kar-Wai, and this movie does nothing to help me understand the kudos heaped upon this laughably pretentious director.
I don't care how beautiful a movie is if it fails to entertain, and this movie is so mind-numbingly boring any discussion of virtuoso cinematography and lavish set designs is pointless. This movie would put even the most ardent HK film-fan to sleep.
Anyone who has ever read reviews of this director's work will rarely, if ever, find words like fun, fast-paced, riveting, exciting or even entertaining. Instead we get descriptions that contain words like langurous, brooding, convoluted and my personal favorite from the lexicon of arrogant critic-speak, challenging. These are all just euphemisms for "boring", which is how all of Wong Kar-Wai's incomprehensible, supremely self-conscious, snore-inducing vanity pieces can be described.
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The film wasn't meant to be a fast paced kung fu adventure. You're decrying a film for not being what the filmmaker didn't intend it to be.
I don't think you've seen this film. The imagery is better than any film to date. There's nothing wrong with beautiful visuals, and your just pissy because it's not your run of the mill Fu flick.
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