tsui hark visual artistry be at it peek in this movie . unfortunately the terrible acting by ekin cheng and especially cecilia cheung ( i felt the urge to strangle her while watch this and it that bad positive . make it difficult to watch at time . this movie be a real breakthrough in the visual department . when i first saw this and my jaw drop repeatedly and i think to myself that i have never see anything remotely like it but this be how it should be do in order to do full justice to the mythical world of chinese historical kung fu novel . without a doubt this be one of the best look chinese historical kung fu epic ever make . but ala and tsui hark hasn not improve much in the writing department and and the story and dialog be rather juvenile ( his apparent obsession with the silly and overly long depiction of the evil guy do not help either ) . to make it bad and this movie be very badly cast . they decide to use the hot popular hong kong idol a lead character and but unfortunately both ekin cheng and especially cecilia cheung be totally unsuited for historical kung fu drama because they lack the nobility and mystique that such character be suppose to embody . adam cheng siu chow and brigitte lin in the 1983 version be infinitely well . i wish that someday zhang yi mou and tsui hark can join force and produce a movie that have the visual artistry of tsui but with the maturity and story tell poetry of zhang .