hmm... this is the closest to a "discussion" thread of the movie that i found.
i give this movie a 5.5/10. it was very disappointing after reading so much positive things about it.
the wire-fu was very weak/lackluster and infrequent. donnie yen's fight was the best but that's only in the beginning and he's not seen again.
the colors, although quite beautiful, failed for me b/c the movie wasn't very good overall. they just seemed to be a contrived technique. much of the scenery and large-scale images were great! but it was looking at a lot of nice stuff w/ no real substance - another contrived technique.
the political overtones were kind of blatant, imo. china = emperor, daughter of general = hk, tony leung = taiwan (moon = sun and moon lake?), donnie yen = past, jet li = future/people of china. at least, that's the way i took the movie. sort of a propaganda film w/ the message "all under heaven".
a lot of the stuff that was in the movie all felt "seen/done that before." sort of the Crouching Tiger sadness throughout the film but, b/c of the episodic nature of the movie, it wasn't very well developed.
the plot sort of seemed to be like equilibrium. and of course, a lot of it was like the Emperor and the Assassin (a far better film, imo).
anyway, i just kind of felt let down after watching it.
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