Jian shi liu bai yuan

The film is edited terribly, it seems like it was glued together. The action scenes were as terrible as some of the facial expressions several actors made. The action scenes were dull and at best were an annoyance. There's no saving grace for me with this film. This film would be considered decent if it was a student film.

The plot was good, as were the fight scenes. However the movie jumps all over the protagonists timeline. Past present and future all mixed together.

This movie is excellent. Now, if you are looking for a bang, bang, shoot-em up, explosion type movie, then I would suggest watching a Micheal Bay movie. But if you are a fan of Traditional Kung Fu movies then this movie will not disappoint. The cinematography of this movie is similar to House of Flying Daggers or Crouching Tiger. The fight scenes are subtle, not your over the top, jump off a building with a flying kick type action scenes. But anybody who knows real kung fu will see that this movie is bringing the real deal. I don't usually write reviews, but I felt compelled to offer a more balanced review than the one provided by the other reviewer.

I gave this movie just 1 star at first long time ago, then I changed my rating to 9 after I've reviewed it the 2nd time. There's something so subtle, so melancholy, so retrospected to the Chinese martial arts, even the making, the writing and the editing were very awkward and patchy throughout the whole movie. The screenplay is somewhat a bit weird, the historical background also awkward, but it shows how the traditional Chinese martial arts had been gradually phased out during and after that specific era in the turmoiled early 20th century. The on-going of this movie sometimes felt heavily pretentious and also so awkwardly patched, the acting also felt quite staged, especially the two warlords' henchwomen, who were so weirdly and so pretentiously dressed and talked, but nonetheless it showed something so subtle and so difficult to put finger on. A very very nostalgic and melancholy retrospection to the lost era in Chinese history. A tribute, a salute and a sayonara to an art that could never be retrieved but only fake outcomes from China.