Of jarring accents...

Rating: 4/10 (17 November 2000)

This movie's a disappointment. Having being weaned from a diet of Chinese martial arts movies ever since I could count, CTHD is _not_ Eastern. It's made for the western audience with an Asian fantasy.
CTHD is not without merit though. Its cinematography of hilly landscapes and waterfalls are characteristic of chinese paintings. The music composition is beautiful too as I remember (Kudos to Tan Dun and Yo-yo Ma). Its predominantly Chinese cast and crew also bring prominence to some of the most talented yet under-represented performers on the global stage. Its swordplay is interesting enough for the first 2 takes however, but when Chow starts flying atop lithe bamboo forests for the 27th sword-fighting scene, boredom sets in.
And although I am generally not in favour of dubbing, I wish this has been done for the credibility of CTHD. This is due to the different accents of all its main actors. Chow has a Cantonese accent; Yeoh a Yankee's ; Zhang's delightful mainland chinese accent and a taiwanese one somewhere. To anyone whose mother tongue is Chinese, these jarring accents grate on the ear and distracts one from the overall enjoyment of the film.