Movie	Extras
Audio	Video

This is just a DVD-5 version of the disk.  Hong Kong has released a 2-disk set (which I’ve nicely reviewed here) - disk 1 being DVD-9 and disk two being DVD-5 - and I think the only other version that will be released is a 2-hour barebones DVD-9.  I’m guessing it will be anamorphic widescreen and have a DTS track.

Movie
With a cast like Jet Li (‘Fist of Legend’, ‘Once Upon a Time in China’), Donnie Yen (‘Iron Monkey’, ‘Blade 2’, action director of ‘Princess Blade’), Tony Leung (‘Infernal Affairs’), Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi (‘Musa’, here) and Chen Dao Ming, a cinematographer like Christopher Doyle and a director like Zhang Yimou (‘The Road Home’, here), how can you go wrong?  Weinstein is how you can go wrong.  After seeing this movie, I said to myself: ‘this movie reeks of Miramax’.  Indeed it does: the original cut of the movie is about 2 hours, and Miramax told Mr. Yimou to cut the movie.  The end result is a too-short 98-minute version.  All the bad things about the movie come from the 22 minutes Miramax told Yimou to cut.  There’s a lack of character development and story.  The movie is about the attempted assassination on the life of the first Emperor of China.  Imagine ‘The Emperor and the Assassin’ by way of ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ (here).

This is what I’m guessing is missing: more scenes between Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi in the first part, more scenes with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in the first, second and third parts, more scenes with Donnie Yen and Jet Li, more of an introduction and resolution to the movie.  Let’s see what the extra 22 minutes have when I get the real version.

The first half of the movie is most affected by this artistic atrocity.  The second half is a lot more like Yimou’s regular style.  The pace in the first half is very bad.  The movie seems rushed and forced.  The movie doesn’t move at its own pace, like all other Zhang Yimou movies do.  The first half is pretty much two minutes of talking, some fighting, two minutes of talking, some fighting...

The second half is far better because the character development kicks in.  I don’t know how Miramax could pretend to think Zhang Yimou doesn’t know how to make movies.  His movies are usually better than anything Miramax releases.  In any case, I’m sure he won’t make the mistake of talking to Weinstein again (everyone should follow his example).

Even if Miramax said to cut the movie, Zhang Yimou still edited it, so you still get a sense of his style.  Also, even if you cut out the characters and story, you can’t cut out Christopher Doyle’s gorgeous cinematography.  My cousin said this movie is a visual orgy, and I’d have to agree.  Some of the shots were absolutely amazing.  The fight on the lake surrounded by mountains is unforgettable.  Thanks to these, and every other shot in the movie, Mr. Doyle was awarded with the Hong Kong Film Award for best cinematography.

Speaking of fights, they are great.  They’re done by film legend Ching Siu-Tung (‘The Killer’, here, ‘Duel to the Death’), and they are wonderful to watch.  They even won him a Hong Kong Film Award for best action choreography.  They have this balletic quality to them.  His talents combined wth the photography of Mr. Doyle and the direction of Mr. Yimou make fabulous results.  The references to ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ are undeniable.  The fight between Zhang Ziyi and Maggie Cheung resonates stronly with the fight between Chow Yun-Fat and Zhang Ziyi.  I preferred the fights in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, but some of the fights in this movie seem a bit choppy.  I’m guessing they’ll be better in the good version.  The acting, by the way, can’t really be obliterated by the cut footage either.  With actors like these, you can’t really go wrong.  Everybody does a great job with their roles.

The music also resembles that of ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ strongly sometimes.  That’s not to mean it’s bad.  Tan Dun does anothing amazing score (although some of the cues seemed a bit wonky, due to, I’m guessing, Miramax).  There are still taiko drums during the fight and the main instrument in the violin, used in the same way the cello was in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ (thanks for the correction, MP).  I’ll try to find this score also.  Tan Dun won the best score award at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his efforts.  The movie won another 4 awards in addition to this one.  It deserved every one of them.

As much as I whined and complained about Miramax ruining this movie, look at the mark I’ve given it.  It’s next to impossible to make a Zhang Yimou movie bad, and Miramax almost succeeded in doing that.  I’d say don’t go see it in theatres, wait for the good version to come out on DVD, and then watch it.  I feel gypped watching this version, but at least I now know what Miramax is capable of.

(Note: The extended edition is much better.  As such I hav actually knocked down the mark for the Miramax version of the movie.)

Making-Of
Pretty much 24 minutes long.  It looks to be a really good.  It had Chinese subtitles only.  One thing I didn’t like is that the non-Mandarin-speaking people were dubbed, so that the DVD people could make, say, Chistopher Doyle or Donnie Yen or Maggie Cheung say whatever they wanted to.  In addition to the 3 already mentioned, Zhang Yimou, Chen Dao Ming, Zhang Ziyi, Tony Leung, Ching Siu-Tung and Jet Li were also interviewed.  They talk about the backstory, the action, the challenges and the magic, or CGI (I know this thanks to English intertitles).  I find it odd that the sound mixing was done in the US, but they didn’t bother putting in English subtitles.  Oh well.  I did hear a bunch of random Mandarin words that I know, so there’s that I suppose..

Audio
The audio is great.  The surrounds (that I could hear) were very well.  The dialogue and the score were always clean and clear, and well balanced.  The punches, kicks, clanging swords and other sounds were likewise very well heard.  This is very good sound for this movie.

Video
2.35:1 letterbox.  Unfortunately, this movie isn’t anamorphic.  The picture, though, is still great.  There aren’t very many specks and the grain is not distracting at all.  The black level is great and so is the contrast.  The colours are marvelous.  In a movie this visual, they really have to be.  The separation is also very good.  I could have forgone any extras to have this movie anamorphic.  I guess I’ll have to wait a while for that.

06/03/2003