First Yimou Zhang movie that didn't live up to my expectations. But perhaps I expected too much. Granted this movie looks absolutely beautiful. Stunningly so. But that alone doesn't keep my interest. And as Yoda would say "A good movie beauty does not make". Maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind but some long scenes were boring me to tears. And after watching people flying around and deflecting arrows was no longer awe inspiring. We've already seen it in Crouching Tiger--

This movie has a surreal feel to it as most of the movie is told in flashbacks and then we find out (spoiler) that they weren't real! It's like some hippies PCP flashback all in weird colors. Yeah, it's probably aimed toward hippies. Everyone of the characters have long hair.

All in all this movie looked pretty and the acting was good even though a tad melodramatic at some parts-- but I get that. It's this whole surreal/fantasy feel. Still the story didn't capture me.