A truly, glowingly, gloriously gorgeous film. Less magically epic than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this film is more personal, as two cops in Tang Dynasty China try to trick a blind courtesan into leading them back to the band of villains/revolutionaries/Robin Hoods that she runs with. Suffused with love, betrayal, battle, blood, and tragedy, I’m convinced that Wm Shakespeare would have watched it with a big smile on his face, stolen the plot wholesale, set it in France, and tacked on a prolog and epilog. But Bill never had access to wire fu experts, nor CG, and this movie is suffused with both.
Fabulous stunts, amazing camera work, lovely costumes, gorgeous landscapes (in China and Ukraine), an amazing interior set, and if the drama gets more than a bit melo- at times, it’s all part-and-parcel of the genre. There’s a reason an opera singer covers the end title music.
Good stuff.
(And many thanks to Jackie for watching Kitten while we went to it.)