Beautiful to look at epic from China that is sort of the cinematic equivalent to a trashy summer read by way of a Russian novel.
Told in flashback the film concerns a wealthy banking family many centuries old. There are four brothers. One is a kind deaf mute, One is a cruel master, the third is artistic and hated by the father and the forth is to get the banks...through circumstances best left to the soap opera the hated third son is forced to choose between the life he wants and taking over the family business. Oh yea, I believe his step mom his an ex-girlfriend and its all coming to boil about the time of the boxer rebellion.
If you think I completely understood what happened you're mad. There are lots of plot lines, many of which seem to appear and disappear randomly. And with many plot lines comes many characters and somewhere along the way I got really lost.
Okay, yes I shouldn't have watched this knowing I was going to be up past 2 AM - but I was curious--and yes I probably should have stopped when I realized I was at sea- but I didn't and I pressed on...
My feeling is its a great looking mess of a movie that should have been longer or remained a novel. The ending left me going- thats it? Apparently.
Then again I was never much for soap operas on a grand scale so I was probably the wrong audience for this.
I'd take a pass unless you really love soap operas or want to see a film that visually is a complete and total work of art..
Told in flashback the film concerns a wealthy banking family many centuries old. There are four brothers. One is a kind deaf mute, One is a cruel master, the third is artistic and hated by the father and the forth is to get the banks...through circumstances best left to the soap opera the hated third son is forced to choose between the life he wants and taking over the family business. Oh yea, I believe his step mom his an ex-girlfriend and its all coming to boil about the time of the boxer rebellion.
If you think I completely understood what happened you're mad. There are lots of plot lines, many of which seem to appear and disappear randomly. And with many plot lines comes many characters and somewhere along the way I got really lost.
Okay, yes I shouldn't have watched this knowing I was going to be up past 2 AM - but I was curious--and yes I probably should have stopped when I realized I was at sea- but I didn't and I pressed on...
My feeling is its a great looking mess of a movie that should have been longer or remained a novel. The ending left me going- thats it? Apparently.
Then again I was never much for soap operas on a grand scale so I was probably the wrong audience for this.
I'd take a pass unless you really love soap operas or want to see a film that visually is a complete and total work of art..