Great film! -- Answering why they need a horse when she seems can 'fly'?

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2001)

Answering why they need a horse when she seems can 'fly'?

I think this is a very culture thing. People understanding this Wu-xia culture will not consider this strange, but people with no previous exposure to Wu-xia (like several viewer here) may think this is not 'logical'-- if they can fly, why they need a horse? I will explain this here.
I am a PhD student in engineering, and I think I am a person with reasonable sense. I did not see this any strange or 'ridiculous' as other viewers think.
Let me try to help explain this. The 'flying' in the Wu-xia is more like a 'great leap'. These legendary fighters were trained whole life, often from they were still young kids, to be great fighter. Some of the extremely accomplished ones were said can run very fast (Chin-Kung), jump extreme high (from ground to roof or treetop), and fight lightening fast. Some old story said they carry some metal weights on their body everyday since young age, and increase it step by step, over 10, 20 years until the weight is many time their own body weight and they still can move as normal people. Then when they finish the training, remove the weight, they can run/jump/move extremely fast/high like magic.
Don't tell me this is impossible--this is more like legendary stories passed from generation to generation. We like the 'little mermaid' the American kid watched all the time, no one really charge Disney to "show me a real mermaid" or "take your c**py cartoon back"? (I like the little mermaid a lot, by the way. I enjoy setting my imagination free and feel the touching part of that story.)

So why they need a horse when she can fly/run so fast? Well, legendary heroes are still people. They still got killed and they have tears and blood as everyone, as you can see from the movie. (That's why we like them so much.) Their strength also has limits, so they need to conserve their energy for unforeseen danger. They cannot waste their energy unnecessarily...(it is not like some Hollywood action hero, who have "unlimited bullet supply" with him so he can shoot unstop until all the bad guys are dead, and no bullet from bad guys ever touched him... which is, to me, more like video game than reality--but good entertainment, still)
We all agree Michael Johnson an excellent runner and jumper, and he have lots of energy, but is he faster than a horse when compete on a 5 mile track? and if he know he may need energy to compete (fight) afterward, will he run for 5 mile or will he rather take a fast horse to get the medicine to save someone he cared? The answer is very clear.
I think picking the "horse thing" and criticize this film is plainly unnecessary and cannot be justified. Please open your mind and you may enjoy the whole world (besides movies) a lot more than you think possible.

By the way, I am from Taiwan as the CTHD's director Ang Lee and producer Hsu. I read the Wu-xia novels since I was in elementary school. I can fully understand why Ang Lee say it is his childhood dream to make a Wu-xia film. In Wu-xia, you can just set your imagination free, and let the heroes move/fight/jump as their deepest emotion flow...to right the wrongs, to save the ones they loved.
Didn't you ever wished you can fly like a bird when you were 5 years old?