I would rather be a condemned soul drifting by your side...

Rating: 9/10 (27 February 2005)

I just watched the film yesterday, it was shown on one of our national TV stations and it affected me quite strongly. I have always been willing to try and watch an oriental film and I think I was fortunate enough to start with this one. It was beautiful.
The director and the cast did a wonderful job presenting a fairy like, ethereal landscape, so apt for the story behind it. And quite honestly, I was amazed how much depth it added to the whole picture. The story is told in a very poetical, lyrical way which one cannot cease to wonder at and perhaps even dream...The depth of feelings captured on the screen enthralled me and left me speechless for the whole evening afterwards.
While watching it for the first time, as I did last night, one may become captivated by the delicate, spring-like feelings, by the deep and mature devotion of the older couple and a deep sense of tradition and honour preventing them from realising that love, the love which is meant to be but ,tragically, for people of their kind, painfully impossible to enjoy. And so, they enjoy their comradeship never crossing the boundaries...but their eyes speak for them, their eyes express everything gestures or words fail to do.
This absolutely beautiful and lyrical story is contrasted with the passions and dilemmas of the impulsive, carefree and at times quite inconsiderate youth. Jen is a princess whose fate had been forced upon her, which she refutes and denies, quite visibly lost amidst all the formality and stiffness accompanying her status. She wants freedom, she wishes to ride on the wings of wind into the wilderness. And yet, we are reminded, human beings cannot be ever truly free, bound as we are by knots of tradition, honour, morality, values. Her seemingly predictable youth is filled with passion for the young renegade, full of hidden secrets and yet she seems to be quite unsure of what she truly wants, she is not ready to follow the path from an ancient legend.
Obviously, there are also other elements and admittedly, quite admirable, but frankly personally I was too absorbed in the magic of the storyline and the landscapes that I perhaps failed to fully appreciate the skillful arts of fighting or the realities of the 19th century China or music even, which are other elements worth mentioning and important in a film of this class.
To sum up, I only want to say that the magic of this unbelievable image lies in its great subtlety and delicacy of portrayal and this "visualised poetry" certainly deserves high praise and applause.