Charming Yarn; Visual Feast

Rating: Null/10 (2 October 2004)

This is a "martial arts" movie, meaning that it has nothing whatever to do with "real" martial arts, any more than Hollywood gun fights have anything to do with real gun fights: it is all like ballet, really.
All the more so in this lovely picture, where the performers fly, do calisthenics over the surface of water and levitate within whirlwinds of Autumn leaves that change colour when one of the dancers is nailed. Very pretty, though juvenile.
The plot, such as it is, is a bit of a labyrinth, in which the same narrative is seen to have several different meanings; this is a wonderful excuse to have the handsome Leung killed several times over in different manifestations of the same setting, always by his lover. This is the most erotic sword play I have ever seen. The women are something else.
There is at least some effort to illustrate the Confucian ethic of The Good of the Many over selfish, individualistic concerns. But this does not keep the King from doing the [eventually] selfless hero in, which leads to a very picturesque Wagnerian procession with said Hero borne on his shield.
Finally, though, it is the visual magic of Chinese landscapes, Chinese interiors (not to mention the idealised beauty of the very decorative cast!) that make this short (96 min) lively film spellbinding. It is probably too pretty for the grunt-and-slash young male fraternity, but I am very happy I saw it. There is something very much like poetry here at times.