henhelena Great concept. It has potential to be a big franchise. A lot of creativity poured here. The action sequences, the setting, the weapons, a lot of creative stuffs can be found here. Detective Dee is such an interesting character. The other characters had their likable traits as well. Conclusion : Creative concept. Awesome universe. Cool settings. Simple, nice story. Good actors. Great characters.

Charles Herold (cherold) I decided to watch this movie after seeing a trailer on youtube that made it look absolutely mind blowing, an incredible, overwhelming spectacle with incredible action; it basically looked like something that could rival Yimou Zhang's brilliant Hero. It's one hell of a trailer, and at times the movie comes close to living up to it.It takes a while for the movie to get going though. Sure, it's epic (although some of the special effects look a little too computer- generated, something I would think would be even more problematic on the big screen instead of my TV), but the pacing feels a little sluggish. It also turns out to be sillier than the trailer, as I realized when a talking deer started advising the Empress. The movie is rather odd in this way, offering magical touches but not really creating a consistently magical world.The first scene that really matched the trailer involves a naked woman and a remarkable number of arrows, and it totally awesome. In general, the action scenes are pretty cool.The story is decidedly convoluted and not everything in it makes narrative sense. But it comes close enough to making sense that the action keeps you from worrying too much about it.So no, it's not another Hero, but it has moments that come close. And while I would rather see the movie the guy who edited the trailer had in his head over the movie I actually got, the movie as it exists is really fun.

Kuma As far as wire trick movies go... this was actually rather good in my opinion. I really enjoyed the action scenes, the maneuvers seemed rather plausible and life like, no major glitches or hang ups, and for once you couldn't see the wires (big yay there!) As for the story plot.... neh not that real impressed, I got hung up a lot with story line, about surviving the shot through the chest... with the fire beetles, with the fight scenes that defy gravity and all that.Characters were interesting... Not sure what to make of the acupuncture/transformation bit. Kind of weirded me out, although it wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen.As for the name... I think its rather lame and/or something got lost in the translations.Over all this was an interesting movie, though I'm not sure I'd watch it again.

Tony Heck "Men have weak points, just like weapons. They will also break when struck." Wu Zetian wants to become China's first Supreme Empress. While the stage and Buddah is being constructed for the inauguration strange things begin to happen. First Master Jia spontaneously com-busts, followed by more people bursting into flames. The empress wants this mystery solved before she takes over and there is only one person she can think of to solve it, Detective Dee (Lau) a prisoner in jail for treason. Can he put aside his feelings and solve the mystery of the phantom flame in time? This is not usually the type of genre I get into, but I did enjoy this movie. The tag-line says "Crouching Tiger meets Sherlock Holmes", it's hard to disagree with that statement. I will add that I think this is a type of modern Kurosawa film. The feel and the plot are something that he would do, and the ending very much reminds me of his style in the way that you aren't really sure if the ending is good or bad for those involved and makes you think. Overall, again this is not normally my type of movie but I did very much enjoy it. Good story and action. I give it a B+.