Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Iseerphia All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

WakenPayne As someone who is slowly becoming a big fan of Zhang Yimou's work I decided I might give this a try. Out of the movies I have seen that he's done of Hero, House Of Flying Daggers and this that this is by far the weakest of his movies, which is not to say that I didn't like it - I just preferred Flying Daggers and Hero more. Even on it's own I'd say it is worth a watch.The main focus is this Borgia-type family of the Chinese Emperor trying to seize more power. The Emperor is poisoning his wife - slowly but surely, his first born wants to make his mother happy, the Empress finds out about the poisoning and wants to confront the Emperor about it and stop him from continuing by any means necessary, The Emperor's second born is in a love relationship with a slave girl who's a part of a family that's secretly trying to kill the Emperor and also trying to stop an... incestuous relationship with the Empress and the third born barely knows anything about what's going on.So what's good about this movie. Well as typical of Yimou's work the cinematography is excellent, The fight scenes are very impressive and as typical of Hero, the scale of everything is just huge. I'm not kidding when I say that I think Yimou took the best technical elements of both Hero and House of Flying Daggers and combined both of them to make a technical marvel. I think especially in the battle scenes in the last third... It looks like something out of Hollywood (actually I may go so far as to say it looks better).On a non-technical standpoint, the story maybe where it falls flat. The first third is completely uninteresting unless you love looking at art design and the characters... This may seem obvious but they aren't that likable and even then they aren't that interesting.On a more positive note about the story, I liked Chow Yun Fat's performance as The Emperor. Basically he comes across as the guy who seems reasonable unless you do something to upset him, when that happens - run, but when I put it like that you might expect him to play it basically like a whiny spoiled brat, but he doesn't. All I have to say is that I do want to see more of his movies.So I just preferred House of Flying Daggers and Hero more. But if you are looking for a movie about diabolical family trying to double-cross and back-stab each other then this is probably going to be a major fill for you. This does have some really good things going for it, like that cinematography, I could talk about how this movie looks good for hours. If you want to watch this then I'd say it is definitely worth a look.

esmorr I caught this movie on TV the other night while flicking around, and could not turn it off! As a Westerner with little knowledge of Chinese history or culture, (any knowledge that I do have has come from a smattering at school as a child and some movies as an adult), this visually spectacular work grabbed my attention and would not let me go.As has been said by others here, this picture is set during the reign of the famous Tang dynasty, where the Emporer lusts for complete control of everyone in his kingdom, including his immediate family. If he cannot gain this by twisting their lives to his will, he will do so by blood-lust. The machinations which surround his ambitions involve every member of the family, and his personal army, as well as his doctor and his relatives.I am not normally a fan of martial arts movies, but the fighting scenes which sew this story together are extremely well choreographed and spectacular to see. Be aware that the blood does flow though. The scenery in this movie is mostly of the Forbidden Kingdom palace and grounds, but is spectacularly offered. Hollywood could certainly learn something from the way that these sets are presented.Masterful performances by the two leads steer this movie through twists and turns which demand the viewer's full attention. Chow Yun Fat is wonderful as Emporer Ping, and the very beautiful Gong Li is quite incredible as the dutiful Empress Phoenix, and grabs your attention in every scene. While on the subject, from a male's point of view it is notable that the push-up bra's are doing overtime in this movie!This is a great picture which I believe that any fan of Chinese cinema, and also those who enjoy Hollywood's offerings about ancient China, will love. It is more than a martial arts movie, and more than a drama involving family. It is a thoroughly engrossing story told in spectacular fashion. I look forward to seeing this picture again, subtitles and all !!

YaumingYMC First off I love Zhang Yimou's films - Raise the Red Lantern. He seems to be really good when he's placed under extreme pressure and has a modest budget. But when he's given tons of cash, he produces this.It looks like an epic. But it feels so try hard - like the effort to increase the bust sizes of all the female actresses by several cup sizes.I found the battle scenes to be very corny and fake. Maybe they were trying to make it stylized or something like Kagemusha but it didn't work for me.When I watched Raise the Red Lantern, I loved the cinematography, the pacing, the direction - this film however seems the total opposite. Maybe it was made for a greater mass appeal.

marqus-2 I was not planning to watch this movie. I zapped right into the movie starting on German TV. I recorded it to watch it some other time. But since I was so fascinated by the movie's sounds, colors and interesting and mysterious story line, I just kept watching it until the end. I am not good in writing reviews like a pro with that special structure and conclusion and things like that. I prefer writing what I think or what I would tell a friend talking about a movie. In my opinion this definitely is a great movie to watch especially if you like Asian movies, the old Chinese emperor times or even fighting scenes, which btw fit great into the movie, not too dominating, not too ridiculous. Overwhelming are the colors in that movie. A must see! I loved the scenes with walking people in the palace corridors, the flowers for the big event, everything! The emperor, embodied perfectly by Chow, really knows how the rule and reign. The palace is gigantic, the people are just drones, the army is so big...unbelievable. But topping everything is the empress. So strong, breath-taking beautiful, loving. It is more than goose-bumping, watching her in that movie. The clothes, hair, costumes in general are very nice in this film. And really, is there anything sexier than the moving nose wings of Gong Li in excitement? :-) I doubt it...