Interesting but overrated...

Rating: 7/10 (12 January 2004)

An odd film, this: so highly placed in the IMDB Top 250 yet so many negative user comments! I guess you'll either love it or hate it and so the only point in writing anything about it is to help you decide which camp you're going to fall into.
So, on the positive side, most of the martial arts scenes are definitely cool, in an exaggerated matrix-like way. There are plenty of nice touches scattered throughout the rest of the story as well. Without giving anything away, I particularly like the scene where Su Lien demonstrates that she knows who the thief is. The acting of the principals is good. If you're going to see one Chinese movie this year, it might as well be this one.
But on the downside, I can't help wondering how well this movie would have fared if it didn't have the foreign movie mystique. The plot is at times confusing. The intent seems to be to not waste any time on introductions and so catapult the viewer directly into the story, but it's easy to miss things the first time round. The story is also very fragmented and jumps around from place to place without much obvious connection. Despite this, it also feels very slow. People seem to be willing to forgive these faults in this movie for some reason, though they might pan a domestic movie for the same things.
But probably the worst bits for me are the ubiquitous wire effects. Some people go on about the effortless way in which the main characters seem to float through the landscape. But for me, the main characters are so obviously swinging around on the ends of cables that it completely destroys any feeling of immersion. These effects are almost a parody of bad filmmaking and every time I saw Li Mu Bai being dangled awkwardly over the rooftops, it wrenched me out of the fantasy experience and reminded me that I was watching a movie.
In summary, a flawed classic. Very different from your average Hollywood production, though that in itself does not make a great movie! Some decent martial arts scenes and some good moments. But ultimately too fragmented and slow to live up to its overhyped reputation.
7/10