Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Enchorde Recap: After the king was overthrown there is a short time of order. But then generals and ministers start turning up dead, often most brutally slaughtered. The new king's best swordsman investigates and soon find out that the assassin is his best friend, one who is still loyal to the old king.Comments: Although full of swordfights and combat this is a unexpectedly slow movie. Mostly this is due to that a lot of the movie is flashbacks of how the two swordmasters became friends. How they trained and ultimately how they ended up on different sides of a war.It's a well crafted film. Obviously a lot of energy has been put in to get costumes and sceneries right. Actually it is a beautiful movie. Like many of recent Asian pictures this is very strong in filming. Visually it is almost flawless. However, the story is a weakness. It gets far too slow with these flashbacks. They are not clearly distinguishable either, and when the main characters switch clothes and are similar in appearance it is sometimes hard to figure out who is doing what. It sorts itself out in time though, but it doesn't help to keep the interest up.Maybe something for real fans of movies of medieval Asian times but for everyone else I guess another movie will work just as well.6/10

dbborroughs The best swordsman in the kingdom is tasked with finding out who is killing the ministers and looking to kill the king. The answer to the question lies in the past, specifically with the events that put the king on the throne-and it raises questions our hero may not want to deal with.Okay action/mystery/drama that is epic and compelling for a while before it just seems to be wandering on with no direction. There is a direction and there is a resolution, but by the end I really didn't care. Its not that its bad, its just that it didn't grab me or rather hold me. Worth a look if you run across it but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it.between 5 and 6 out of 10

raoul-guariguata I must say: out of all modern korean martial arts movies this one is worth checking out. It wasn't as epic as Musa-The Warriors and didn't develop the characters as well, but it had many nice ideas. Simple story: a elite soldier thought dead, returns after years to end the reign of the Japanese in Korea in medieval days. His counterpart was formerly the best friend he had and now he is out to stop him. The fight scenes are all with sword or different weapons and very entertaining to watch. The motives of the figures are discovered first near to the end. You might need to watch it again to get all the connections right. And me personally...I loved the end. I could watch it over and over again. Maybe a little pathetic, but a real freedom fighter story.... People can be killed, but not the ideas they stand for....

neozeon The tale of two comrades who made different choices and now fight on opposite sides. An expensive and visually exciting movie ruined by a very thin plot and some flashbacks that are difficult to distinguish from present, actual events and the faces of many actors are so similar to a western audience that it might well happen to feel quite confused.Scenery and costumes are very interesting and there are some details in weapons, armors and robes that are very particular, such as the far east small hand weapons, the lamellar cuirasses and the hats of the dignitaries.Blood runs in rivers and beheaded enemies rank in dozens. It is disturbing in the long distance and it is absolutely unnecessary to show all this violence to tell a tale. A film about violence embellished by the choreography, sets and costumes. The plot is irrelevant at the end.