Beautiful cinematography, great fights--little else

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2001)

What's all the fuss about? This movie is a Japanese romantic drama about male and female roles and a special sword and tons of other stuff. The story is so convoluted, I can't really recount it all. Basically, the film has, as I said, incredible fight scenes and beautiful wide-screen cinematography, but little else. The story is confusing and boring and, with the sole exception of Michelle Yeoh, badly acted (even Chow Yun-Fat!). I gave up on the film about halfway through when they threw in a needlessly long flashback that's a Western!!!! It adds very little to the story. It seems to be there just to up the romance in the movie. Also with such bad acting, you could care less about the characters. Also, the fight scenes aren't that original...Jackie Chan has been doing them in his movies since the 1970s. Also, the film is subtitled...it doesn't bother me but other viewers might not like it. So an overpraised Japanese film. In a few years, nobody will remember this.