Coming out of the theater, I had no idea what I just spent eleven dollars and two hours of my life watching. I found almost no point to this movie and no real meaning, theme, or message. Or any pleasure in its viewing. After thinking back on it, talking about it, and trying to analyze it, I see much more depth than I first gave Zhang Yimou credit for. He has made some of the best movies China has to offer and he definitely knows what he's doing here. There ended up being several pretty significant and ubiquitous themes that I initially missed. There are laws on this earth that cannot be changed, you cannot take by force what isn't given to you, and no matter how big familial quarrels are, history will continue on unchanged--we are small and meaningless in the long term. However, it was not the kind of movie I thought it would be, so there was a severe difference between my expectations and what the movie offered. I think the movie is also at fault to some extent, as it tries to be both an action movie/martial arts epic and also drama of family intrigue.
There were a couple of absolutely blissful shots in the beginning and end. This was no doubt aided by the stunning set design. The music was nearly flawless; it added tension from the start and an operatic, epic mood throughout that worked perfectly. The acting was also fantastic; Chow Yun Fat has such a commanding presence and Gong Li simply owns the camera. The movie attempted to be a Chinese Hamlet, with insanity, familial deceit, a slow disintegration of order, and everybody dying at the end. It actually pulled it off pretty well.
The action in the beginning was really cool, but it wasn't sustained. The editing style was unexpectedly non-traditional, bizarre, and jarring; I couldn't understand the point and therefore didn't appreciate it. Some scenes and some of the acting was a bit too theatrical for me and didn't really fit within the movie. I didn't like the large battle sequences; they didn't feel real and were unnecessarily time-consuming. I was also pretty sad that Chow Yun Fat didn't get much screen time. It's actually a pretty good movie if you can get into it; just don't expect something like Hero or House of Flying Daggers.IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0473444/