A fantastic fairytale

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2001)

This is not a kung-fu movie.
It's important to set that straight first, because anyone going to see this movie expecting such will be disappointed. The fight scenes are stylized, technically assisted, and completely unrealistic.
Once you accept this, though, what beautiful scenes they are! The other reviews making comparisons to the great kung-fu classics totally miss the point of the movie, in my opinion. The plot is indeed simple, necessitated perhaps by the cultural disjoint of the film to it's audience, but at the same time it isn't burdened with having to explain the finer nuances of the ritual and history. It invests the extra time in character development, a smart choice given the superhero-like qualities they are given and the quality of the actors available to the director.
It's a story you're probably familiar with, with a few small twists, but this movie is one of the most beautiful and awesome presentations of it put to film and well worth seeing.