Bichunmoo

this film seems to be divided into two parts, the one is the martial arts, political part, which is cool and the other is the love story which is far too sappy.

the plot is simultaneously thin as paper yet so convoluted as to be incomprehensible, starting with the main character's nose. the story runs something along the lines of "Hero comes from ancient dynasty, knows martial arts secrets, and is in love with a forbidden woman. meanwhile said woman is key to labyrinthine politics involving Mongolian warlords, Chinese Warlords, corrupt officials and everything in between." the double crosses go on endlessly, until it's rather tricky to tell who the hell is betraying who. meanwhile the whole tepid "I loved you once but now you're a murderer, No i'm not you betrayed our love" thing drags on.

the fight scenes are fantastically choreographed but poorly shot. characters fly at each other and slash in a graceful sword dance, but the camera tries to match their acrobatics, resulting in an eye hurting riot of movement. the hero's undefeatable signature move (i almost expected him to cry out "Hado-Ken" whenever he uses it) is used way too often, and leaves every fight with a predictable close. it's other problem is that fight scenes are scattered liberally throughout the film, with no correlation between the quality of a fight and its importance, so many of the best fights (an incredible scene as the hero's war band descends on an enemy fort) are used on the most mundane plot points, with average fights for the more important scenes (including a terribly weak climatic fight). the other problem is that since the hero's fighting style is so effective (even without the street fighter style finishing move) that he uses the same moves in every fight, with little to no variation, all the fights end up shockingly repetitive.

meanwhile the hero alternates between a quivering lipped softie, and stony faced mannequin. one of the villains fairs much better, and, annoyingly, wins our sympathy far more effectively than the hero does.

this may sound an unfair blasting of the film, and i wish i could sound more even handed, but the film could seriously have used some comic relief (one joke in two hours is not too much to ask) some editing (way too much sepia toned slow motion) and just some good old fashioned still cameras (ones that didn't back flip with fight scene) my rating 5/10, potential but mostly squandered

The movie strays from the original manhwa, mostly due to time restraints. Therefore some of the characters are barely introduced and their actions seem very random. You should watch the series that came out a few years later that goes into a lot more detail and character development. Still was a good movie though.

Well, I bought the DVD and afterword's I read the reviews on IMDb before I saw it, and they're not good, so my expectations was really low.

But I liked it. The story line is a bit confusing and a bit to cliché, but its still good.

The fighting scenes are great though. Yes, there might be some blood spurts as in the old movies(and Kill Bill), but so what? Its one of those movies you have to see, if you like martial arts ad sword fighting, but if you're going for a love story with some action, choose another one.

well maybe if the storyline made a little bit more sense. I enjoyed this movie considerably. The story is very confusing, but if you watch it 5 times it starts to make more sense. The cinematography is beautiful the colors are wonderful, red is a theme running throughout the entire movie. The costuming was great except in one scene where I'd swear the aggressor was using a toy sword from KB Toys. Also, as a previous comentator on the IMDB pointed out, the hero does have an unusual nose, which I found myself staring at more than watching the movie at times. I don't see any reason for people to compare this film to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon except they are both asian martial arts films. Truth be told, I liked Bichunmoo much more. But then, I like a thrilling romance that goes right to my heart.

OK, this movie is no Lord of the Rings, or even Crouching Tiger.

So what? It might not be a masterpiece of world cinema, but it's rather fun.

The plot is cheesy (big plot holes as well) and the love story severely cliché, however the art design and sets are beautiful, the fights fun enough (though a bit puzzling), the leads are all appealing and there is melodrama and angst galore.

Yeah, you could do better (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Musa). But if star-crossed lovers, revenge and period movies are your thing, and you don't mind a few bits where the plot is confusing and/or over-the-top, you can do much worse than Bichunmoo.