Di yi lu xiang

First of all, I have to say that this movie is over-the-top pretentious. The acting of all the participated actors and actresses were so forcefully exaggerated due to the pretentious dialog. A screenplay purposely tried to imitate the Chinese classic "Dream of The Red Chamber", full of gossipy characters, even the maids are so mean and evil. Almost all of them are parasites.

The settings are very rich with beautiful mansion surrounded by luxurious landscape, more like a paradise in Hong Kong before WWII prior to the Japanese invasion. The storyline is also very cliched like most of the Chinese TV drama plays we've seen.

A movie only for the female audience, believe me.

.. or Wong Kar-Wai.

Despite the presence of Christopher Doyle ensuring that it looks great, and some good actors, there's really nothing here, in my view. The plot is a pretty cliched "poor girl tries to make good but wonders too late whether the sacrifices were worth it" variant but despite that there's little in the way of drama or erotic tension and much of the "action" is just meandering.. and then it ends. Without resolving much, as far as I could tell.

Maybe I missed some deep profundity but I suspect perhaps not. Not recommended, really. I'd rather watch "Hero" again - or "2046", or "Lust, Caution" itself.