How people see this movie differently

Rating: 7/10 (24 March 2003)

This movie has received very different kinds of feedback, some call it the best martial arts related movie ever, while others call it a bad attempt to make yet another Kung Fu movie. I am more towards the first. I think I look at the movie in a very different way, because I do Wushu, which is what most western people call Kung Fu. I will pull out a few examples from the movie and explain the way I look at them, and how it could be different from some ordinary person just looking for a good movie. THERE WILL BE A FEW SPOILERS.
The martial arts scenes most of the time include some moves which are against the laws of gravity. This would seem totally "fake, fake, fake" as I have read many times, to a normal person who can't see beyond the jump or the spin the character is performing. Seeing beyond, basically means thinking of the jump as a metaphor, which represents the skill and the concentration of the person. Same with running on the water, it is trying to show you that the character has a skill far beyond any of ours. It is only a simple martial arts related metaphor.
The scene where Sky and Nameless confront is another really good example. It must've seemed weird that they suddenly stopped their battle to have the old man play them music. They even payed him to. They mentioned that martial arts and music are very alike. The music inspires them to fight the battle before it actually takes place. It is another metaphor, just like the running on water etc. Haven't you ever worked better with music? It sometimes does help. By going through the fight in their minds they can compare each others skills too, and see what the opponent is capable of doing before they even really begin.
My last example will be the calligraphy scenes. Remember the part where they talk about the 19 ways of writing the character: "sword". This is really true, in the old times they did have 19 ways of writing that character. Some people in the ancient days actually "chose" their own way to write it and used techniques related to their way of writing it. Nameless tries to seek Broken Sword's secret twentieth character to unlock his special skills in the techniques of straight sword. This is really interesting to me, because when I look at the character I start searching for the technique, and the way the technique is hidden is really incredible.
It is an amazing movie which means a lot more to people who read Chinese and/or know Wushu/Kung Fu.