TeenzTen
An action-packed slog
Breakinger
A Brilliant Conflict
Melanie Bouvet
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Winifred
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
andrei-kivu
Now, reading through the reviews here I see there are obviously two kinds of people: ones who get it, and ones who don't. Get what? one might ask. That this film is not to be taken seriously by any means. Yes, it's badly presented (myself too was expecting something in the vein of Hidden Dragon/Flying Daggers). But it has nothing to do with them whatsoever. What it is it's a romantic comedy/parody. Anyone looking for "action", "drama", "fight scenes", should look somewhere else. Of course, it's a weak film, but I kinda liked the goofiness of it. When I saw the copying files animation when a character was transferring her powers, I was like "ok, hold on, what is going on here?". Of course most of the attempts at comedy are pathetic. It is indeed a high-school comedy transported in medieval China. Everything works out at the end and you feel a warm feeling of completeness. Some (ok maybe one) of the dances of the blind man I found quite well done. I repeat - the film is a goofy little flick, easy too watch, hyper predictable. If you expect anything else from it you will be disappointed. And how funny life is - I don't know what curiosity pushed me to find a little more of the main actors. Oh boy. The main character - Cecilia Cheung involved in a major sex scandal?! To see the fearless warrior, White Dragon performing fellatio on a guy?! Oh, the irony.
jtchamberlin
If you liked 'Cat and Mouse', this is a movie you're going to like. It is a great romantic comedy, where you inevitably fall in love with the characters. I enjoyed how they stepped it up a little with a touch of a different culture in it, but glad they didn't over do it. Cecilia Cheung is a funny woman with a lot of talent. I will watch movies that she's in, just because she's in them. She just seems so comfortable in the roles she plays, and humor seems to come easy to her. Her co-partner, who plays Chicken feathers, really brought his character out. I would like to watch more of his movies, because he played his role very well in this movie. He made quirky movements like a chicken, and a funky chicken at that, and was still quite charming and lovable. I don't know if people watch this because they are looking for action, but it is more of a romantic comedy with the bonus of action. The fighting style reminded me of the video game 'Mortal Combat', which I thought was pretty cool and can appreciate. I advise anyone watching this as a foreign film, to watch it with subtitles. Nothing beats hearing the tone of the real voices, and reading the subtitles is not difficult, but sometimes listening to voice-overs are. May I repeat...subtitles, subtitles, subtitles. I fear that some people did choose to have it sounded in English, which might have taken away from an otherwise good experience. This movie, and 'Cat and Mouse', are on my favorites list for romantic comedies.
veltle_l
This movie seemed promising, following in the wake of movies like House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden dragon, this movie seemed to follow in their footsteps. Already a few minutes into the movie, I find that I am partially right, the wire-work and choreography is clearly inspired by previously mentioned movies, however, the quality of said elements lacks the dance-like qualities Crouching tiger, Hidden dragon and Flying daggers had, and the tempo makes it less enjoyable to view. The movie has some interesting camera use, but it doesn't reach the sophisticated level of the two previously mentioned movies.This movie clearly shows how eastern movie-making becomes heavily influenced by western ideas of how a movie is supposed to be made. Roughly the first half hour of this movie could just as well have been an American college-movie moved to a Dynasty era China. The dialog and thematics are heavily modernized. You even hear some modern expressions and one asiafied American brand name, if this is supposed to be a joke, or very poorly disguised product placement, I don't know.The plot is strikingly similar to any American romantic comedy, and the ending fails to surprise with anything, except exceeding all limits for exactly how happy it can be, almost to the point where it becomes parodic, but not quite.All in all, I feel that this movie had promised me another Flying Daggers, but ended up giving me an Asiatic movie that tried too hard to appeal to a western audience, and ended up turning silly, possibly even provoking for fans of Asian movie-making.
sarastro7
When I saw Cecilia Cheung for the first time in The Legend of Zu (2001), I was immediately struck (if not smitten) by her beauty, and I hurriedly started looking for her in other movies. After a bunch of modern-day dramas (slightly boring, truth be told), she's finally back in a fantasy martial arts epic, looking better than ever.I was immensely thrilled to find White Dragon, and I was elated as I saw the first twenty minutes of it. There is so much cool action, so many great laughs; so much delightful entertainment.The rest of the movie is not bad, but it slows down a great deal to focus on building up the love story. It has many of the same plot elements that other Asian movies of this type has; someone is blind (yet a superb kung fu master), the girl is betrothed to another but can't help falling in love with the hero (yes, just like in House of Flying Daggers), and the love story completely takes over the movie after about a half-hour opening of great action and comedy (the great 2002 comedy Chinese Odyssey had the exact same structure). This is a little disappointing; one would really have liked the action and comedy to be sustained throughout the movie.However, it's still an uproariously entertaining, beautiful and funny movie, and the actors all do an amazing job.8 out of 10.