I certainly wasn't disappointed. There were moments of sheer directorial brilliance. The cast is top notch. The story and characters are interesting. The characters, two peasant couples in a war-ravaged land, seem to spend the length of the movie making the worst choices possible; usually out of various forms of greed. The tension isn't about "will they run into trouble" but "when" and "how much."

This is what I call a "film school" movie. It's something that could be played for budding directors who could dwell endlessly on the minutia of long takes, lighting, composition, etc. This isn't a bad thing, per se, but don't expect an action movie. Ugetsu is great at period drama and social commentary but not a single car explodes nor are any young martial-artists trained to avenge their sifu.

There were many really fantastic moments. Sure, some are stolen and others are totally whacked out, but that didn't ruin the fun for me. And yes, the acid/venom-space-car reminds me of the retarded "baby" alien in Alien IV in terms of boss-fight-lunacy; but what the hell, it was still fun. Finally, I generally hate kids in action movies (most movies, actually), but this time it worked great. Jet has great father-son chemistry with young Miu Tse (same talented kid from “My Father Is A Hero").

Don't buy this if you don't like: