I'm hoping this is showing at my local cinema, but sadly Asain filsm rarely do. If not, it's "wait for the DVD" again for me.

And if you weren't impressed Matt, that means the rest of us will love it!

Darth Mattitude wrote:

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I didn't say I wasn't impressed, I said it wasn't as good as his others...

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Ahem...

Darth Mattitude wrote:

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Watched this tonight, not overly impressed.

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Anyway dude, relax. I'm just teasing you. Nothing personal meant by it.

Still no news on whether my local is showing it yet...

-- Edited by Man In Black at 07:44, 2007-04-11

For some reason i dont fancy this at all, but i may have to check it out though ill buy the dvd rather then watch at the cinema. Gong li and Chow Yun Fat are great actors so i am sure they do a great job in the film.

Adore House of the Flying Daggers, and Im fond of Hero so I have high hopes for this...love the colours in these films, amazing!

Just got back from seeing this. I thought it was great.

I love how the story unfolded, revealing a new piece to the puzzle just when you thought you had it sussed, and how everything was intertwined with one another. It was a great game of one up-manship, which each side managing to outwit the other at every stage.

It's interesting in that there is no clear cut protagonist or antagonist, as the conclusion is that everyone is as bad as each other. The story felt a bit slow at times but amazingly the two hours flew by. Admittedly there are a couple of things that go unexplained and a few questions remained unanswered (maybe there is a directors cut looming somewhere?) but nothing too detrimental to the conclusion.

The performances are top notch and frankly more Oscar worthy than any of the eventual Academy Award winners in my opinion. The cinematography and direction was stunning and the set designs, costumes and make up were suitably opulent. The fight scenes were well choreographed and the insane battle at the end was incredibly well staged.

Gong Li is gorgeous throughout this film and Man Li who plays Chan is a real new talent (and a bona fide cutey) to watch out for too. According to IMDb this is her first film and I predict a big future for her.

I think that some people were probably expecting another Hero or House Of Flying Daggers but instead we got something different, something in-between which maybe why reactions have been lukewarm.

But I say screw 'em. I enjoyed this a lot. Another triumph for Asain cinema!