Better than Crouching Tiger

Rating: 7/10 (3 September 2004)

There were a lot of similarities between this movie and Crouching Tiger as well as another movie Jet Li was in called "Swordsman 2", but I would give this movie the nod over Crouching Tiger. Whereas Crouching Tiger was more of a love story, this movie had that element as well as the element of revenge, nobility, courage, and selflessness.
The story was excellent. It was brilliant in its simplicity, and I could see that the writer subscribed to the principal of less is best. The cinematography (if that's how it's spelled) was good as well. The director did a great job with the shots to capture the feeling of the moments. I had to deduct points due to what I felt was overkill on redundancy, plus there were a few slow moments which could have been done without. Anytime I look at my watch then the movie has hit a slow point, and I didn't look at my watch until an hour in.
Though it hit a snag, they made sure not to drag the movie on unnecessarily.
The movie is only about 90 minutes which was perfect. All in all, I liked it a lot. I didn't want to quite give it an 8 because of a few parts I've seen in other movies, plus other redundancies, so I settled for giving it a 7.
Still a must see.