The movie is well done, though it appears that it was really made for the "big screen", and loses a lot of its marvelousness when viewed on a TV screen. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are great to watch together, not just in their fight scenes, but in the camaraderie of their acting scenes. Thank goodness these two gentlemen had the foresight to learn acting! In fact, they are better than some of the other actors in the movie. The special effects are great, as well as the makeup work on Jet Li and Jackie Chan, who play dual roles in the movie.

No, it's not a typical "martial arts" movie (some of which seem to have been written by and for seventh and eighth graders and subject their casts and viewers to the ordeal of their acting attempts), but it's a wonderful story for those of us who know that the Universe is filled with the unseen and the unknown.

By the way, the "extras" included on the US SE 2-Disc Set are worth watching at least once, especially the background on the filming locations and "how it was done". Also interesting is hearing the writer speak about how the story came to be written.

The opening of the film is clever, as a band of entertainers start out telling the story; then we are transported to the place and time to follow the tale. Too much singing for me (another musical--ugh!), but great mysticism and clever humor as we follow the Immortals in their quest to eliminate the bad guy and make everything right in the human world again.

There are brief side stories along the way, just to make it interesting. For some reason, though, the big budget must have run out at the end (or appears to), because the vampire's hair style looks like a 1970s disco fright wig, with matching eyebrows and wild make up. There's also some sort of wild creature that is obviously some unfortunate actor on all fours wearing a shaggy arrangement of skins (most likely fake fur).

All in all, though, it's a pretty neat story, very entertaining.

The beginning of the story is well written and well-performed by the child actors, whom I found refreshingly non-obnoxious and very talented. The shocking death of Crown Prince Sado at the hands of his father, the king, is a strong contrast to the innocence of the young leading characters. It also makes me wonder exactly what kind of person the king was. Later, the story becomes a bit confusing with so many people involved in conspiracy, but remains interesting. The painfully restricted Confucian attitude that dominated Korea at that time shows in the horrified response to Song-Yeon (a "mere art damo") being able to draw and paint on her own. Yi-San, known for his original ideas and fairer rulership, sees nothing wrong with his friend's talent, making him even less popular with the palace crew and creating more ammunition for the conspirators.

I'm eager to see the next installment of the series.

I'm less than impressed with her performance, as it is unimaginative, and limited to pouting (as are all the actresses portraying the damos in the art dept in this story), looking confused, stuttering, and saying "huh?" or "what?". After a while, it's really irritating. Again, it could also just be the script and/or the director, especially since many actors and actresses from "Dae Jang-geum" have shown up in "Yi San".

The addition of odd background sound effects seems mismatched to this series; the costume, props and sets often outshine the performers. The scant handful of truly good performers are outnumbered by the campy, stereotyped ones. Strangely, there are scenes in volume 2 involving secondary characters that don't add to the story, and they seem to be more "contractual obligation" scenes than anything else.

I hope volumes 3 and 4 get better.