Highly Overrated

Rating: 3/10 (23 December 2000)

I viewed this movie with full knowledge of all the great things people said about it, maybe that's what made it so bad. I expected someone to come on screen at some point and explain the joke to me because I just didn't seem to catch it.
The story of the movie is nothing special. Just a collection of typical plots rolled together. The revenge story, the unspoken love story, the aristocrat's daughter wishing for a different life story, thrown together with some fights.
I had heard all these great things about the fight scenes in this film. Well, yes, some of the movies used are pretty cool, the way they were done became tiresome and actually provided a great laugh. All the flying around and running up the sides of buildings completely destroyed any realism to the film. Willing suspension of disbelief and all but when a 200 pound man is standing on the bending branch of a bamboo tree or flying around through the forest it just gets a bit hard to suspend that disbelief. The wires and fast motion camera don't serve to make the characters look like great fighters, they just demean the film. The wires became boring after the very first fight and just escalate from there. Maybe it's because I'm not a big fan of The Matrix style of action, but at least there's a reason given in that movie as to why these people suddenly have the ability to fly and run along the side of buildings. These scenes also set a bad presidence for the rest of the film making you wonder why they would use horses at all when they can jump so fast and so far.
Sure some of the scenery is nice and the attention to detail (well, except all laws of physics) is pretty good but then what? I basically waited for this movie to end wishing that it wouldn't push too far past two hours.

There is nothing to really separate this film from a typical samurai movie. In fact, save your money and rent Lone Wolf and Cub (or something like it), at least then you'll understand that the movie is not to be taken seriously and they don't try to pass themselves off as something they're not.