#10 All Time?!

Rating: 7/10 (8 February 2001)

Come on, this is NOT the 10th best movie ever made. Yes, visually stunning with great cinematography. Yes, some decent, and in part even touching, acting, especially by Michelle Yeoh. Overall, yes, an entertaining movie... ...but, it has a luandry list of faults.
Chow Yun Fat never really fights in the movie, even though he's the quintessential warrior of his generation. Why is this? Because Chow Yun Fat doesn't know martial arts. Do I hate Chow Yun Fat? No, I like him a great deal. Do I think a great Kung Fu movie ought to star someone who knows Kung Fu? YES!
The plot is all over the place, the importance of the sword is built up a great deal at the beginning, and then its forgotten about until the end when its given some passing consideration before being forgotten again.

I realize that flying over the tops of trees is a legitimate style of Hong Kong action flick, but it still left me a little cold. The actual fighting was cool, but I could have done without the Mary Poppins stuff. *SPOILER ALERT* At least until the end, when the young warrior girl needed a horse to go get an antidote instead of just flying there.
The reunion of the two younger lovers was completely unrealistic. Her reaction to him made me wonder if I had missed something that happened between them before they were separated.
Sure, some of these are nitpicking and personal preference issues. But some of them are legitimate flaws. This is not a perfect movie as everyone seems to be suggesting. It may be refreshing to see a different type of cinema for we Westerners bored and over-stimulated by tripe like The Perfect Storm and The Cell, but its no excuse for overrating a good, but flawed film.