Good but not great martial arts film; overrated

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2001)

Now I've been watching martial arts films for my entire life. I've been watching Asian martial arts films for years, so I've seen it all. I've seen the old style choreography, the modern kickboxing, the Jackie Chan style of prop fighting, the new wave wire fu of the 1990s, etc. I'm not one of those people that'll go into the film and criticize it because it's unbelievable. After all, I watch films to escape from reality, not to let it get bogged down.
The plot deals with the events that occur following the theft of a legendary sword. These events affect the lives of a swordsman (Chow), a governor's daughter (Ziyi), a master criminal (Peipei), and the leader of an escort service (Yeoh). It's not really important to discuss those in detail.
A lot of the film's praise goes back to the fight scenes. Well, they're good. Yuen Woo Ping is one of the masters of choreography. The swordfight is especially good, probably my favorite cinematic sword fight. But on the whole, it's nothing new. Chow holds his own, but isn't spectacular. Zhang Ziyi looks decent but people like Donnie Yen could do the same things without wires. Michelle is excellent as usual, I think she was underused in the fights, she only gets two scenes (which are the highlights of the film). However, like I said, it's nothing new or ground breaking. And for people that criticize the flying people, IT'S A FANTASY!
The other praised aspects of the film is where the line between those who know the genre and those who don't gets defined. This is not the first martial arts film to have a good musical score. Just watch the Swordsman series or the Once Upon A Time in China series. Those movies have awesome scores and far more memorable songs. This is not the first martial arts movie to have a good storyline. Once again, check out the Swordsman movies or the Once Upon a Time in China films (well the first 3) and there you get good stories. Jet Li's Tai Chi Master and Fist of Legend also have good storylines. There are dozens of martial arts films out there that have good storylines. This is also not the first martial arts film to have good cinematography, acting, or characters. People treat it as if it were the first. Sorry people, that's not the case.
It's really an insult to Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Yuen Biao, and a lot of the other classic Hong Kong action starts when people praise this movie so much. Why? Because they've been doing this stuff for years (often times without wires and computer enhancement) and yet they've not gotten the same wide respect from American audiences. Also, it's insulting to them that a film with few actual martial artists (Michelle Yeoh is the main exception) gets so much praise, when the people that really know the stuff can't get the same.
I'm not saying this to say that this isn't a good film. I'm saying that it's overrated and nothing new. People who say this is the greatest martial arts film ever really need to go back and watch a lot of the classics of the genre to understand what I mean.