Yimou Zhang's latest martial arts epic may be a little slow-moving for some tastes and, for those with the patience to stick with it, the reward in terms of storyline is not really adequate: court intrigue descends into a power struggle amongst the members of the dysfunctional Tang dynasty that comes across as more soap-opera melodrama than the epic tale for which Zhang seems to have been striving. The lengthy battle scenes go some way towards making amends, and the set and production design are absolutely stupendous (especially if viewed in HD), but the overall feeling once the credits roll is one of disappointment.
There's no-one to root for here: the queen, slowly and deliberately being poisoned by her husband, is seducing her stepson who is weak-willed and timid and, we (and he) discover, is sleeping with his half-sister. His older brother it transpires, is in league with his mother, who is planning a rebellion, while the youngest brother, while initially coming across as something of a simpleton, is hatching plans of his own. Meanwhile, the father is a cold and distant figure of simmering hatred who pretty much looks as if he deserves everything it looks as if he's going to get.
Viewers unfamiliar with eastern films may struggle to come to terms with a style of film-making that lingers far longer on characters to record their emotions than western films, while the ninja assassins begin to look like comedy support at times: it's as if they spend all their time clinging spider-like to the ceiling, waiting for trouble to start so that they can glide smoothly down on their ropes.
As you might gather from the above, I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but I'm always able to appreciate a good film, whatever it's about. This film is well-made, colourful, and full of violence but it isn't very good.
There's no-one to root for here: the queen, slowly and deliberately being poisoned by her husband, is seducing her stepson who is weak-willed and timid and, we (and he) discover, is sleeping with his half-sister. His older brother it transpires, is in league with his mother, who is planning a rebellion, while the youngest brother, while initially coming across as something of a simpleton, is hatching plans of his own. Meanwhile, the father is a cold and distant figure of simmering hatred who pretty much looks as if he deserves everything it looks as if he's going to get.
Viewers unfamiliar with eastern films may struggle to come to terms with a style of film-making that lingers far longer on characters to record their emotions than western films, while the ninja assassins begin to look like comedy support at times: it's as if they spend all their time clinging spider-like to the ceiling, waiting for trouble to start so that they can glide smoothly down on their ropes.
As you might gather from the above, I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but I'm always able to appreciate a good film, whatever it's about. This film is well-made, colourful, and full of violence but it isn't very good.