Rating: D-
Dir: Andrew Lau
Star: Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Sonny Chiba, Kristy Yang
I suppose the major defining factor of this film is its dragging of the fly-by-wire sword-and-sorcery Hong Kong film into the modern Hollywood FX’s digital domain. And from a purely visual point-of-view, this kicks ass, occupying the middle ground between film, its comic book source, and a really cool video game. Unfortunately, it seems to rely on the audience being totally familiar with the comic, and to anyone else, the results are largely incomprehensible. I won’t spoil the plot by revealing it, but that’s mostly because…I can’t.
My first two attempts to get through this ended in confusion and boredom — looking at the rest of Andrew Lau’s filmography, there is indeed an excess of substance over style; however, this one doesn’t so much as take the biscuit, as scoff the entire packet then go hunting in the cupboard for more. It’s the sort of film that would make a great party tape, but the great lumps of plot sit uneasily with the ultra-visuals, and may be liable to leave the viewer feeling in need of some Rennies and a lie-down in a quiet room.