See it! But what's up with the ending?

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2000)

The action in this movie is explosively beautiful. Quite simply, its a violent and magical ballet the likes of which I have never seen before. The script is taught, the acting pitch-perfect, and the cinematography some of the most lush in recent years.	But, WHATS UP WITH THAT ENDING? It was a real artistic and dramatic letdown. Although the tall-tale nature of the story necessitates the suspension of disbelief early on (somewhere around the first Spiderman impersonation, where one of the fighters runs up a wall), aside from the fight scenes the rest of the movie maintained an element of reality. The creative direction was so masterfull that it transformed potentially ludicrous fight scene where characters leapt like flying monkeys between trees into something of acrobatic beauty and near artistry.
Sure, my desire for a feel-good American Holywood schlocky ending was somewhat deflated (I'll leave out why for those of you who havent seen it yet). But what I'm most upset about is the very last scene between Jen and Lo--not the dialogue, which is forgivably predictable, but the image of Jen flying off into the world, spinning like some music video image. She looked like a milk bottle, and the ridiculousness of the over-the-top literalism of the fable turning into reality just left me with a lingering bitter taste despite what was ultimately a feast of a movie.	Does anyone know about Chinese legends/folk history or what the sources for this movie were? Im really perplexed about the decisions in the last quarter, the directions that each of the parallel love stories took. Please let me know if you have any comments: moviebuffgirl2001@hotmail.com