the clothes Zhang Yimou made for the emperor...

Rating: 1/10 (28 August 2004)

I thought Zhang Yimou was so experienced at making amazing Chinese period pieces that he couldn't possibly allow himself to make an American kung-fu film. Yet this was the sort of heavy-handed, mind-blowingly boring, sentimental rubbish that reminds me strongly of the American sentimental schlock I've avoided, such as The Alamo.
Not only was I bitterly disappointed (I've been waiting for this film for several years now), but I was angry. What on earth were they thinking?
The producers are DARING stupid audiences not to like it. They seem to think that you'll be so distracted by the style of it, and that you'll be so fascinated with a "period piece" of history you know nothing about that you will be loathe to admit how often your mind wanders during the interminable fight scenes between invincible fighters who martyr themselves for their own definition of "hero".
Definitely a matter of the emperor's new clothes.