Superb Movie

Rating: Null/10 (12 October 2004)

Most of the negative comments on this movie I believe missed the point. Although it has a plot, it is stylized to the point of resembling a kabuki drama. The action is not intended to be realistic, but ceremonial. The metaphor is ballet, or kabuki, not an action film. This is the difference between 'Crouching Tiger', which - despite the aerial fantasy - was definitely an action picture.
This isn't. It's like watching a Chinese fairy tale or legend come to life, or perhaps a 16th Century morality play. The resemblance to 'Rashomon', mentioned by a few reviewers, is misstated. The same story is retold, but there is never any confusion of perspective, which is the theme of Kurosawa's masterpiece.
One the viewer accepts the notion that he is seeing a pageant, or masque, rather than a realistic movie, the picture becomes a wonder. It is one of the most spectacularly beautiful pictures ever shot. Almost every frame is a good still in itself, and the balletic action scenes are staged so as to give all the colors of the sets full range. Just to name one example, an aerial (in the Crouching Tiger sense)combat between two characters, both dressed in blazing red, amid trees whose leaves are a brilliant autumnal orange. The spectacle has no parallel in any film I have ever seen, and it is only one of any number I could cite. An amazing achievement.