Kind of like The Lion in Winter meets Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in 922 or whenever in China. There's plenty of colour and spectacle in the opening few minutes (and lots of squeezed cleavage - at times it all seems very Restoration) but then you realise we're not leaving the palace, with all the ensuring shenanigans there.
Chow Yun Fat is always charismatic but isn't quite well cast as the ruthless Emperor who has to deal with his wife and three sons, most of whom seem like decent enough sticks - some are and some aren't, as we find out.
There's much plotting and too much walking around corridors and abrupt cuts, but just as you're about to get sick of it the action scenes start and don't let up til the end. Some of these are thrilling (scenes of ninjas flying down along ropes in the dead of night), some a bit silly (all the dead bodies and no groaning?), all of it is spectacular. The body count is extremely high and there is a fair bit of blood which may put off some of this film's target market in the Western world (i.e. middle aged women)
There's much plotting and too much walking around corridors and abrupt cuts, but just as you're about to get sick of it the action scenes start and don't let up til the end. Some of these are thrilling (scenes of ninjas flying down along ropes in the dead of night), some a bit silly (all the dead bodies and no groaning?), all of it is spectacular. The body count is extremely high and there is a fair bit of blood which may put off some of this film's target market in the Western world (i.e. middle aged women)
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