Narcissistic Chinese sherbet

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2004)

Nameless avenger gets access to the despised king of a Chinese kingdom a couple of thousand years ago. The aesthetic deliberations far outweigh the dramatic ones in 'Hero' which had the whole world at its feet when it opened. Yimou's film is so delicately hand-colored, so utterly sophisticated in the way is blends colors as a masterful sherbet dessert. But there are no ambitions beyond the coy titillating of the senses with a tiresome haute couture-ish, narcissistic exterior. After about half an hour everything looked much the same to me, and I couldn't be bothered (watched it through to the end though, always do). Did I mention the fact that I kind of dislike it when films I watch turn out to be admittedly Fascist?