I got a kick out of or from this film, and it's definitely better than a lot of what plays in movie cinemas. I looked at the movie listing for a local cinema that shows 9 movies every week, if not every day, some months ago. Not a single 1 of the 9 had/has any favorable reviews on the WWW; not among reviews I checked anyway. So, of course I didn't go. When paying around $9 to see a film, then it better be good.
I will add a little commentary about the closing paragraph of the review posted by Harry T. Yung from Hong Kong.
Quote: "While the main focus of this movie is entertainment, it does have a historical perspective as Wu, the first empress of China, is among the most controversial historical figures. One thought-provoking question would be that if a depot is capable and the people general benefit, does it really matter if he or she is fiendishly cruel and ruthless? The movie misses a good opportunity to underscore this theme for the audience to ponder over. In the final scene when Dee pleads with the villain not to assassin Wu, the reason he gives is that the method of assassination employed would mean killing a lot of innocent people in the process. The movie would have gone up a notch if, instead, Dee points out that despite Wu's short-comings (including, sigh, being a woman), she is the best ruler they had at the time, and killing her would be doing the entire empire a disservice." 1) "Wu's short-comings (including, sigh, being a woman)"? Ugh. Ya gotta be kidding. Why is being a woman a short-coming? 2) What's the real history related to this film's story? What's factually based about the empress and the detective, plus the character who wanted to assassinate the empress? (Of course I know that the CGI and wires stuff didn't exist in the true history.) This isn't a discussion forum, so the questions are rhetorical. If someone posted answers, then there's no way to be notified about this, so the questions unfortunately remain of rhetorical genre.
I will add a little commentary about the closing paragraph of the review posted by Harry T. Yung from Hong Kong.
Quote: "While the main focus of this movie is entertainment, it does have a historical perspective as Wu, the first empress of China, is among the most controversial historical figures. One thought-provoking question would be that if a depot is capable and the people general benefit, does it really matter if he or she is fiendishly cruel and ruthless? The movie misses a good opportunity to underscore this theme for the audience to ponder over. In the final scene when Dee pleads with the villain not to assassin Wu, the reason he gives is that the method of assassination employed would mean killing a lot of innocent people in the process. The movie would have gone up a notch if, instead, Dee points out that despite Wu's short-comings (including, sigh, being a woman), she is the best ruler they had at the time, and killing her would be doing the entire empire a disservice." 1) "Wu's short-comings (including, sigh, being a woman)"? Ugh. Ya gotta be kidding. Why is being a woman a short-coming? 2) What's the real history related to this film's story? What's factually based about the empress and the detective, plus the character who wanted to assassinate the empress? (Of course I know that the CGI and wires stuff didn't exist in the true history.) This isn't a discussion forum, so the questions are rhetorical. If someone posted answers, then there's no way to be notified about this, so the questions unfortunately remain of rhetorical genre.