A little lost on DVD

Rating: 8/10 (13 May 2007)

Sometimes movies just have to be seen on the big screen, not on DVD - that is my big disappointment with this great epic. I've no doubt it would be so much greater if I'd seen it originally.
But this cannot take away from what is by any standards a great movie. Like so much late Kurosawa, it isn't flawless - for a long movie it doesn't always have full narrative coherence, and some characters are undeveloped. It would have been nice to have more of a back story to the shadow warrior. Was he really just a thief, or was there more to him than that? A few hints are given in the opening scene, but not much more.
However, as a demonstration of what an epic movie should be, nobody can beat Kurosawa. Just think what he could have done if he had the technology Zhang Yimou uses!