Nice cinematography, poor dialogue and story

Rating: 6/10 (6 September 2007)

This film is incredibly difficult to rate and review.
Plot line is fairly simple. Nameless man in ancient China visits the King of one of the kingdoms to receive his prize for dispatching 3 notorious assassins who have been trying to kill the king. The story proceeds with the man relating the story of how he killed the 3 to the king.
The cinematography is excellent with a great deal of blatant if somewhat obvious symbolism. The heavily stylized fight scenes are often interesting and creative.
The film has a few problems. First, the characters are not developed very well. Fully one third of the film turns out to be false character development. There are at least 2 fight scenes which have nothing to do with advancing the plot, the characters or the story, and in fact are being told to the king by the Nameless man who was not even present to witness the fights. The dialogue is often boring and as unrealistic as the fight scenes.
I found myself halfway through the movie saying please get to the point I've seen enough of people flying through the air and blocking arrows with silk dresses and unexplained physical abilities.
The other thing I found uncomfortable about the film is it's simplistic message of the benefits of totalitarianism. In today's cinema, American films with simplistic patriotic or politically black and white messages are panned. Yet for some reason it's not the case with this film.