amberhelenawriting

Whatever you do: read the book first! And if it's too late, read the book after.

After finishing the book, I was absolutely enchanted. One of the best books I've ever read, and I hadn't been this captivated by any book since childhood. This movie however, like someone else mentioned as well, should've been a mini series. I wish we could get a do over with the same cast. Especially Hobie is so well cast. The book is massive however, and it needs a lot of time to really let the minute details sink in. I would say this isn't a bad try, but it's just impossible to capture the essence of such a great novel in one movie. It needs time and air to make you connect with the characters and storyline. And if I hadn't read the book, I wouldn't understand what was happening at all.

Honestly, the main reason I'm writing this review is because I'm baffled by the amount of hate it's receiving. First of all: I actually liked it better than most Disney live action redo's. I'm not here to just see a literal copy of the animated movie. I really enjoyed it and it made me emotional at times. Also, the visuals are just absolutely stunning. Those colors, the landscapes and sky... Just, wow! I think the story as presented in this movie is beautiful. I'm not Chinese, so I'm not sure how true to Chinese history, tradition and lore this is, so I can't base my opinion on that. But as an outsider I thought it was a great movie, better than I expected. I think if it was even more raw and lost some of that Disney glow it would've been even better.