I watched this film quite by accident as I was wandering through channels on Roku and came across this on a live stream as it was in it's last 15 minutes. The knife fighting was superb as was the direction and choreography and I watched the end without understanding the film at all. Curious and with more than sufficient interest I found the film once more and watched it from the beginning to try to understand just what I had watched.
The story-line starts off slowly and it's pace is meandering but interesting and I admit I began to be a little lost with all of the differing twisting plot points, but if you give it time to develop it all makes sense in the end and the last part of the film shows how all of the plot points culminate in a big finale.
The many differing layers of betrayal here was really interesting and I was more than a little impressed with such a complicated arrangement of layers.
I am English, so this film was subtitled for me and I am not sure if the translations were correct or not as there were some nuances I missed and had to keep rewinding the movie to better understand. For that reason I am not sure if my inability to correctly understand everything was due to my being just a complete foreign muppet or if the translations were not the best they could of been. Please bear with this film if you don't understand everything, it does come together quite well you just need to maintain some patience and suspend any frustration you develop until the grand finale.
This is an excellent film, the colours and costumes were stunning and I enjoyed the action. The films star was very stoic and perhaps it might of been better if he was more relaxed to show greater emotional depth, but that's just an opinion.
I did not reveal any plot points here, but the storyline begins in a simplistic way with the main character wanting to open an school in this city and having to learn and submit to the rules he must obey. From there it devolves into a game of intrigue and politics. Many people are being played on many levels and there will be tears before it's all over.
Well recommended film for those who enjoy a good storyline, martial arts and films that show case other countries and their cultures.
The story-line starts off slowly and it's pace is meandering but interesting and I admit I began to be a little lost with all of the differing twisting plot points, but if you give it time to develop it all makes sense in the end and the last part of the film shows how all of the plot points culminate in a big finale.
The many differing layers of betrayal here was really interesting and I was more than a little impressed with such a complicated arrangement of layers.
I am English, so this film was subtitled for me and I am not sure if the translations were correct or not as there were some nuances I missed and had to keep rewinding the movie to better understand. For that reason I am not sure if my inability to correctly understand everything was due to my being just a complete foreign muppet or if the translations were not the best they could of been. Please bear with this film if you don't understand everything, it does come together quite well you just need to maintain some patience and suspend any frustration you develop until the grand finale.
This is an excellent film, the colours and costumes were stunning and I enjoyed the action. The films star was very stoic and perhaps it might of been better if he was more relaxed to show greater emotional depth, but that's just an opinion.
I did not reveal any plot points here, but the storyline begins in a simplistic way with the main character wanting to open an school in this city and having to learn and submit to the rules he must obey. From there it devolves into a game of intrigue and politics. Many people are being played on many levels and there will be tears before it's all over.
Well recommended film for those who enjoy a good storyline, martial arts and films that show case other countries and their cultures.