A true poem

Rating: 10/10 (1 June 2001)

Up to now i wasn't much attracted to martial arts movies. When I first saw the trailer of "Wo hu zang long" on tv i thought that it was going to be just an interesting movie and nothing more. How wrong I was. Before i begin my commenting of the movie I'd like to say that describing this movie as a kung-fu film would be a truly great injustice.
The story line is quite complicated partly because it involves the lives of many characters and until the end of the movie you keep asking yourself if you understood everything or missed something from the plot. I won't describe it here partly because it would spoil the fun of future viewers and partly because it would take too much time and space. In my opinion the great quality of this movie are its characters. If you watch it closely you'll notice that although it deals a lot in a fantastic environment the characters are very realistic. There are no "good guys" and "bad guys". Everyone makes mistakes and everyone is in a particular position because of his/her past and experience. i believe that all the actors do their best and the result is more than satisfying.
The other strong point of this movie is the relationships between the characters. Love, hate, friendship, abandonment and rejection continually change places and mark the lives of all the heroes. It could be a love story but as it often happens in real life true love is most of the times hidden and silent. This movie also treats death as a form of catharsis and redemption, the way most great tragedies do.
You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned the fight scenes. I thought so. I won't say anything about them because i believe that people should see this movie for the movie and not for the fx.
Someone said that if this was a Hollywood movie everyone would be ranting against it. I would like to add that if this was a Hollywood movie : firstly it would have won the Oscar and secondly it wouldn't have captured the true eastern philosophy. It would turn out to be another martial-arts-great-sfx-but-no-meaning movie and i think that "Wo hu zang long" is a lot more that that. And personally i like when movies like this never win in the Oscars because quality and emotions can never be measured with prizes. Just see the movie and learn to respect your emotions.