claustrophobic camera angle that do not help the movie represent too long face only shots where you most of the time get the feeling that the low half of the film be miss ( that the screen be cut off ) and because there seem to be important action go on and but you can not see them . there be anyway already too much confusion in the movie and so these view angle make it bad and do not contribute to artful visuals . i like artfully make movie and unconventional camera work . i can handle deep and slow movie . but this one be try too hard to be something artful and fail in my opinion painfully . nothing to get attach to and to any of the character and because they be not work out well enough . to work out character more be need and than just minute long face shot and at least with this set of script plus director plus actor . i wonder whether some of the not so good acting be due to the script and director or due to the actor . i will stay away from film both write and direct by le you for sure in the future . what an annoying film even for someone who would be interested in that part of history and and for someone who spend time in shanghai .