come from a chinese background and there a lot more wrong with the movie from a chinese perspective than an american view of the movie . this movie be terrible . chen kaige and a renowned director in china that have create numerous wonderful film and have go off the deep end with this one . yes and this film be certainly one of the most artistic of it time . however and that about all it have go for it . the cast of character and fairly well know in asia and be a poor choice for a mandarin film . the mandarin speak by hiroyuki sanada be utterly horrible ( strongly resemblant of crouch tiger and hidden dragon ) . i have a strong background in mandarin and and i couldn not understand 75 % of anything that come out of his mouth . even my natively chinese parent could barely understand his dialogue . the dialogue would have probably be much well deliver have it be in japanese with chinese subtitle . that bring me to the point of the plot and which be so confusing it hurt your brain and and not in a good way ( a in saw and saw ii ) . it would take at least 5 viewing of this film to understand the plot and and if someone actually bother to submit themselves to such torture and they would realize that the plot be virtually inexistent and thin in the first place . watch zhang yimou work and such a hero if you want to get your wu xia fix . or and if you be die for a new film and try another of zhang yimou work and rid alone for thousand of mile . but do not watch this unless you want to come out with a death wish or you have be toking up . sure color be pretty and but they will fade with time .