Geschichtenerzaehler I like martial arts films. I really do. And often I forgive them their silly stories and lack of logic. But not this time. This wannabe epic fails at everything.For some reason, probably lost in translation, the Chinese emperor wants to eliminate all martial artists and has put a bounty on all of them. Some kind of wild mercenary army using cheap prop mechanical weapons erases entire villages on its path claiming a bounty for each slain person. Obviously imperial officers are pretty dumb...We soon learn about an endangered village which is in dire need of help. this part of the script is basically a rip off of Seven Samurai. Unfortunately the villagers personalities are so off-putting, that one doesn't care about them at all. They are just a bunch of hate filled, xenophobic idiots. I won't go into the confusing, paradox details here.Somehow they learn about 7 sword wielding heroes and send for them for help. Said heroes reside on a cold, snow covered mountain top in actual holes in the rock. There is absolutely no clue what the heck they are doing up there all day.Some troubles later the heroes join the villagers in their task to defend their homes. I don't really recall any good or entertaining martial arts scenes in the middle part of the movie.Now the movie begins to drag on. Slowly. Very, very slowly. It tries to give every(!) character an elaborate, cliché ridden melodramatic background. It ties hard. Way too hard. Lengthy landscape shots dubbed with overly emotional music accompany these parts. The only interesting character in the entire movie happens to be the main villain. He isn't nice or charismatic, but he makes up for it with insanity, which sadly is the only entertaining thing you will witness for about 120 minutes.At the end there's finally a good fight scene. About 2 Minutes long. That's all. I had to endure 150 Minutes of terrible movie making getting there. Absolutely not worth the time.

JoeytheBrit This was my first taste of the director Tsui Hark's work and, considering the man's reputation, I can only assume I picked one of his duds as an introduction to his CV. The sublime, painstaking craftsmanship is plain to see in every frame – the film is astonishingly beautiful – but it's so very, very dull. And somehow, when you consider the fact you have a world-class director, a 'Seven Samurai' story, martial arts and violence, the suspicion arises that someone is guilty of pulling off a monumental blunder because, with ingredients like that in the pot, it's surely easier to produce a juicy delight than it is to make a tasteless stew like this.Apparently the film was originally intended to be four hours long – I don't even want to think about that – which is probably where the problem lies. Cut anything in half and it just isn't going to be the same, whether it's a film, a foot or a stupefied viewer's attention span. Characters seem to be arbitrarily introduced into the plot with no unique personalities and no back-story, making it nearly impossible to tell them apart. And if you can't identify the characters you're watching, you can't identify with them on any level, so you don't become involved in their plight. Only Honglei Sun, as the unfortunately named Firewind, a villain with a snigger like Dick Dastardly's sidekick Muttley, strikes any sparks.

Chrysanthepop Tsui Hark's 'Chat Gim' is visually wonderful. The breathtaking and landscape, the beautiful set design and colourful frame, the brilliant composition of images, the mesmerizing cinematography and skilled editing superbly come together. Hark parallel's good vs evil and beautiful vs awful very well. He clearly takes his inspiration from the masterworks of Kurosawa (even though this film is an adaptation) and, in my opinion, produces something better than the likes of Ang Lee's overrated 'Wo Hu Cang Long'.The only minor drawback, I'd say, is that the story is not anything new and it is not as impactive as Kurosawa's work. Then again, Hark manages to bring his own style and give it a unique presentation and 'Chat Gim' by no means is pretentious piece of work. The subplots fit well together and the characters are interesting. Perhaps a few could have been further developed? However, the actors do an adequate job. The fight scenes are not too many but they're appropriately set within the context of the story. They are very well choreographed and do not look over the top as is the case in many films ('Wo Hu Cang Long' being an example of such). Unlike other films of this genre, this one is very human.It's a bit funny how I got hold of the DVD. My brother owned it and I was teasing him that I'll take the DVD and keep it (he gets very irritated when I do that) and to my surprise he told me that I can have it. Now I'm glad I get to keep the film. Hark put a lot of heart in the making of this beautiful film. It's certainly one of the better films from the Wuxia genre (one of the best I've seen so far). It's not only visually pleasing, it has a heart of gold :).

Fijario Went into this movie thinking its good to be another crouching tiger, or hero.But wait its not, its a action packed movie where flying around is not a factor they stick to the ground with some cool swords and evil villains...I would by this movie and watch it without English dubbing and watch in the actual language. So if it was good with English dubbing got to be even better.Great cinama beautiful shots.must watch ...