Nope, over pretentious and boring

Rating: 1/10 (15 October 2004)

Despite the incredible reviews and perhaps ever so slightly because of them I was let down by this movie. I did'nt enjoy 'Sleeping Tiger...' which many had compared to this and I found this very boring with monotonous scene after scene of dull but nicely shot fighting. I was able to see a homage to the far superior Kurosawas 'Roshomon' in narrative structure but found this to be feeble and overrated to say the least. It just did not do it for me and was oh so pretentious, and far too slow. I did however appreciate the cinematography and the good visual experience this film had created, yet I just could not get into it all. It did'nt really contain any deepness for me all seeming rather shallow and pointless.