Absolutely Stunning

Rating: 8/10 (28 September 2008)

Having seen and enjoyed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "House of the Flying Daggers" I wanted to find another film in the same genre so chose this as it shared the director with the latter film. I'm glad that I did watch this as it is a stunning film in many ways; not only is all of the action is beautifully choreographed but every scene looks stunning due to the way colours are coordinated.
The film opens with a nameless assassin arriving at a royal palace to be thanked for killing three other assassins that were a threat to the king who has been conquering neighbouring kingdoms. We then see, in flashback, what may of happened between him and the other assassins. Without trying to give too much away we see the way he dealt with them in more than one way, each time what happens is different as his real motivation becomes clear.
As mentioned before this film looks stunning and it has many memorable scenes, in particular where Moon (Ziyi Zhang) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) fight in an Autumnal forest dressed in red robes that match the leaves and a later scene where Nameless (Jet Li) and Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) fight over a lake.
The acting and direction are solid throughout, if you like stylised martial arts films then I'd certainly recommend this one. If you haven't seen a film like this before don't be surprised when characters do impossible things like running through the air.