Amazing first impressions - with a bitter political after taste

Rating: 3/10 (9 June 2005)

Stunning images, great use of soundtrack and sound effects with many a vain-heroic, fatal charge onto a sharpened blade. With one exception the characters are mean, one dimensional, selfish failures. Moon alone stands out with integrity and consistency. Perhaps this was the only opportunity the director dared take to get across a humanistic message. But in the end Moon is also abused by the party machine as she urges Nameless to rethink his plans to assassinate the murderous King/Communist Party. Without her character this movie is pure Communist Party propaganda = suffering, cruelty, sacrifice and oppression are acceptable for the 'greater good'. So Tibet and all Chinese democrats can expect to be obliterated for the sake of National Unity. Taiwan should also be worried. Academics can expect to be visited by a mighty army and destroyed just like the calligraphy school. I fact, the military extras were all drawn from the Red Army! It's an epic and operates on a grand scale - enjoy it for the visual spectacle and sounds and very long hair. Try, if you can, to avoid thinking about the message and its sinister undertones.