indeed - very good (if you don't know Star Wars)

Rating: 9/10 (6 March 2001)

I only went to see this movie because it's said to be so good by www.imdb.com, one of the top-ten movies ever. So my expectations were very high. During the movie I didn't know very well what to think of it. The story has ups and downs, some very exciting moments, but unfortunately also a few moments almost boring. There were no real surprises in the movie, not even the flying (I knew it from the trailer and I understand it and find it cool) or the Chinese language, it's a very beautiful language.
Overall the film got me a very beautiful feeling, the fight scenes are amazing, the acting is perfect, the landscapes stunning, the dialogues intelligent (if you know something about eastern philosophy). There is really nothing in the movie that's somehow done bad. But there's one thing in the movie that disturbed me all the time: I always saw parallels to Star Wars. A few examples:

old school heroes (Wudan - Jedi) - a young talented pupil (Jen - Luke Skiwalker) - the swords! - supernatural abilities (flying - Jedi forces or "the Force") - the master / pupil conflict - good and bad side of the force - training school far away (Wudan school - Yoda) etc.

Look, I don't want to make this movie bad, but I think I've seen Star Wars too many times, for me CTHD is Star Wars in a good ol'china style. And for me Star Wars is the greatest movie ever made, one not to mess with. The story gets predictable if you know Star Wars, and that takes the tension out of it. As I said, I've had a very good feeling after seeing this movie, and for me that's the most important thing, and this movie's got one big bonus: It's not from Hollywood! It's almost unbelievable that Ang Lee has been able to make this film in China, it must have been quite expensive.
I'm not sure if you can say this is one of the top-ten movies ever, but it's very good and worth to watch for everyone. 9/10