I was pretty excited when this hit theaters. There was a lot of buzz floating around about it being the next great martial arts film. Unfortunately, for everything it does right, it does equal wrong.
For starters, this is a martial arts film, so you would assume there would be lots of fighting. And there is fighting, just not all that much. Most of the film is littered with lengthy dialogue scenes that are intended to deepen the characters, but this fails as well. Character motivation seems to be limited to "spur of the moment" reasoning and the ultimate plot is nothing more than standard fight-film fare (boy gets beat up a lot, boy trains, boy beats up everybody).
This isn't to say that the film doesn't have some positive aspects. The film is gorgeous; color, cinematography, lighting, all handled with expert flare. As for the fights (when the film gets around to them), they are excellent. Eskewing the modern trend penchant for treating fights like elaborate dance sequences, here instead we get some real hard-hitting brawls that also maintain a look of grace.
If only the filmmakers had put as much effort into the writing as they did into the look of the film, this could easily have been one of the top martial art films, instead of mild entertainment destined to be forgotten.
Score: 6/10
