Worth seeing, but...not everybody's cup of tea

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2001)

I left this film feeling disappointed. It is not a bad film by any means, but it does not live up to the media hype, in my opinion. I adore Asian films, and also love fantasy films. This was both, but somehow was not very satisfying.
It seems that the biggest disappointment was the loosely constructed story that left lots of things unexplained. Well, that has happened with other good films. Somehow it didn't work in this one.
The heroine of the story, Jen, was not a very heroic figure. Usually she came across as a spoiled brat. This would have been o.k. for a while if it were possible to tell WHY she had this huge chip on her shoulder. A point was made that she was rebelling against the traditional woman's role in her culture. That concept could have carried her story in a much stronger way if it had been explored in depth. But it wasn't...
Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh did some awsome acting in this film. I also loved the special effects and the fight scenes.
If you want to see a good Chinese film, see Farewell, My Concubine; Raise the Red Lantern; or any other film directed by Chen Kaige or Zhang Yimou. A great (animated) Asian fantasy film is Princess Mononoke.