A hi-tech kung-fu fairytale

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2000)

An important thing about this film when judging it is what is its genre. As polished wu xia, this film is perhaps the best ever made. As a rival to "Da hong deng long gao gao gua" it is poor. Throughout the film you can find all the basic elements of Chinese mentality: Pride, honor, respect, sincerity and love. Great visual effects, although the "flight" scenes are exaggerated and tiring. On the other hand, one cannot but admire the beautiful choreography of kung-fu scenes. Speaking of beauty, I still wonder how my eyes managed to unglue from Zhang Ziyi. And I thought I'm old enough not to be mesmerized by a woman on celluloid!