Sandy Chang

To say that George Lucas’ 1977 “Star War” copied and borrowed some styles and ideals of King Hu’s 1967 masterpiece “Dragon Inn” is probably right: A preface of introductory info, then leave everything else to action. Director Hu had said this movie is not a Wuxia movie (sword fighting genre in Chinese movie history), but an action movie in period clothe, which is exactly correct. The hero in traditional Wuxia movies always comes from certain sword school and learned from a famous master. The relationship of master-disciple is very important in a Wuxia world. The hero in this movie, Xiao Shao Tzu, is a master-less, smiling happy-go-lucky swordsman (sounds like Han Solo, huh?). The fighting scene in a small space of tavern was also borrowed by “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” 33 years later. What I liked about this movie is the details of the director’s command of everything: The watchful eyes of his actors, the misty morning light, the silhouette of people in sunrise, the sea clouds in the mountains. It’s rare to see these poetic beauties in any other action movies. Many interesting and innovative concepts were used: fight movement employed Chinese Opera choreography, but faster and with quick-cut editing; the use of Chinese Opera instruments, tautly beats of drums and gongs on fighter’s footsteps, created the beauty of dancing and musicality in the fighting sequence.

Zhang knows how to make sexually intense love story movie, but not Sword fighting type movie. The whole movie is too pretense. Why everybody wear black and white cloth? All the scenery is black and gray. Well, even the gushing blood looks black too.Too much style and no substance. Mr. Zhang Yimou probably thought brutality and a lot of blood was also a sensual pleasure. He was wrong. Choreography of fight is fine, but the rest of story is kind of flat. Gong Li..please come to rescue! Without brilliant star actress, any of his movies with men holding swords is a disaster.

The lead actress's performance might earn four stars for the show. The biggest problem was the script. It was unconvincing, with plot of roller coast gimmicks and twist events. It wasted a good opportunity of addressing the underlining themes of workplace sexual harassment and suffocating "Asian parenting". I have nothing against human drama if it is done right. But the unbelievable strange sudden break up and later reunited sub-plot of the last three episodes to hurry up the end game of the whole story is not only an emotional jeopardy, but also an insult of the viewer's intelligence. I thought the heroine had changed because of the power of love. Towards the end of the show, why did she hook up another jerk? Was she voluntary or was she succumbed to her mother's demand? Either way, it makes the whole show meaningless.