I thought it would never end.
Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie, especially visually. The effects were beautiful and artistic and the sets were elaborate, but not so elaborate that they overwhelm the eye. And the actors were good. Kaneshiro was properly whimsical and tragic when he needed to be and Lau was properly indignant and angry, and Zhang...well, she was near perfect, as she was in Crouching Tiger. Her characters in the two movies are very close in personality, but Zhang makes them completely different.
The plot is this: Jin (Kaneshiro) and Leo (Lau) are two officers of the national guard (I'm pretty sure that's what it is) who are ordered to kill the new leader of the Flying Daggers, a terrorist group working against the government. They believe that a new showgirl (Zhang) at the local brothel may be linked to the Flying Daggers. After capturing the girl, named Mei, Jin frees her from the jail cell and tells her he wants to go with her to join the Flying Daggers.
The plot twists and twists again and again, and while the different twists are entertaining, I saw most of them coming. And trust me, if I saw them, you'll see them. But it's a fun experience, especially when you realize how intelligent the ideas are- it makes you feel smart when you figure it out. The last scene is a neverending fight between Jin and Leo which dragged on long enough for my friends and I to ask why they didn't just die. Usually when someone gets stabbed in the back or the heart they keel over and die, but not so in director Yimou Zhang's world.
Most of the choices the director makes are good ones. The screenplay isn't perfect, but it keeps you watching. What makes up for the film's flaws is the endless array of astounding images that flash and flow before you eyes the entire time.
Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie, especially visually. The effects were beautiful and artistic and the sets were elaborate, but not so elaborate that they overwhelm the eye. And the actors were good. Kaneshiro was properly whimsical and tragic when he needed to be and Lau was properly indignant and angry, and Zhang...well, she was near perfect, as she was in Crouching Tiger. Her characters in the two movies are very close in personality, but Zhang makes them completely different.
The plot is this: Jin (Kaneshiro) and Leo (Lau) are two officers of the national guard (I'm pretty sure that's what it is) who are ordered to kill the new leader of the Flying Daggers, a terrorist group working against the government. They believe that a new showgirl (Zhang) at the local brothel may be linked to the Flying Daggers. After capturing the girl, named Mei, Jin frees her from the jail cell and tells her he wants to go with her to join the Flying Daggers.
The plot twists and twists again and again, and while the different twists are entertaining, I saw most of them coming. And trust me, if I saw them, you'll see them. But it's a fun experience, especially when you realize how intelligent the ideas are- it makes you feel smart when you figure it out. The last scene is a neverending fight between Jin and Leo which dragged on long enough for my friends and I to ask why they didn't just die. Usually when someone gets stabbed in the back or the heart they keel over and die, but not so in director Yimou Zhang's world.
Most of the choices the director makes are good ones. The screenplay isn't perfect, but it keeps you watching. What makes up for the film's flaws is the endless array of astounding images that flash and flow before you eyes the entire time.