Hollow Spectacle

Rating: 5/10 (27 August 2004)

I have mixed feelings about the film. Surely it is a amazing work of cinematography, probably of editing, sound editing, sound design, and production design. The layers and layers of presentation are astounding, such as when we are witnessing the hero telling of his first fight, and he remembers looking forward to the fight. In his memory. And then the fight happens--but it's different. Whoa. The integration of color into the layered revelations of "the hero's" purposes and motivation is fantastic.
I thought the acting was clumsy, almost comical, with the exception of Tony Wai (Broken Sword) and Maggie Cheung (Flying Snow). This movie is not a step forward in the acting--the art--of martial-arts films, especially in the way in which I thought Crouching Tiger was a huge leap forward--and much of that may be due to Chow-Yun Fat and Ang Lee. The cast of Crouching Tiger gets my nod any day over this.
I am also very troubled by the connotations in the movie's OVERT political message, which robbed the movie of much of its power for me. Having recently seen Sansho the Bailiff (Japanese), I found the historical romanticism in this film hard to take. This movie is to China what The Patriot is the the U.S.A. Much more shallow, actually.
Even with politics aside, I thought CTHD told a much more human story, and is a much better film, if less visually gratifying. I cried for the characters in that movie. I pitied the characters in this one.