What a great beginning...Spoiler (Sort of)

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 2004)

This movie looks greaaaaat. And by that, I mean unique visuals, wonderful camera moves, a perfect amalgamation of live action and CG, and perfect one-shots of scenery. Costumes, settings, characters/actors and CG work beautifully together to weave a wonderful story. But I do have two issues with this movie...
And I feel I give nothing away by saying this... Is it just me or does Asian cinema have an almost unnatural fixation with pathos? If you've seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you understand that for the 'drama' portion of that film there was a sad part to the ending of the movie. That happens again in this movie. [Is it so wrong if characters are actually happy in the end?] That said, ONE sad sub story almost lessens the OTHER sub story. But, that could be forgiven.
The OTHER problem I had with this movie is, that after a wonderful act one, and a fantastic progression through act two, complete with twists and turns, the pace in act three drags to a crawl! After all the wonderfully choreographed fight scenes and the twists that the story takes at times, the resolution of this entire tale seems to drag on FOREVER!
However, despite that, this movie is still worth seeing at least once. A definite 8.5 out of 10.
Final thought, is it just me, or does Donnie Yuen/Yen HAVE to get terribly underused in EVERY movie he's in? (ie. 'Blade 2' and 'Highlander: Endgame'?)