slayer69 Came across this movie looking for something else and thought I would give it a watch. The storyline was decent enough and not too confusing with an interesting look at individual's commitments to their beliefs and their journey and how they dealt with changes to their commitment once situations changed. It was not your typical Chinese action movie and was located in some beautiful areas, with the scenery and imagery quiet nice. Costumes where nice and suited the characters being portrayed. The only thing that could have been done better where the combat scenes, which had a lot to do with the way they were filmed, the view was quite close so made for some confusion by the viewer. Still it was nice to see the resistance to the usual highly choreographed fight scenes.

lastliberal A Japanese soldier travels across the Gobi to chase a deserter, but they have to join forces against a common enemy to reach their destination.Japanese actor Kiichi Nakai and Chinese actor Wen Jiang lead a brilliant cast that includes Xueqi Wang as leader of the desert bandits and the incredibly beautiful Chinese actress Zhao Wei, who will be appearing with Infernal Affairs actor Tony Leung next year in John Woo's The Battle of Red Cliff. She starred with Leung in Chinese Odyssey 2002.The battles were fierce, but the incredible scenery and special effects are what grabs you as the duel between Kiichi Nakai and Wen Jiang were delayed not only to fight the bandits and the Turks who wanted to control Western China, but to deliver a sacred relic to the Buddists. This relic had special powers that made this film beautiful.

medic82 Personally I think it's a rip off of Musa, but besides that, it does a terrible job of developing characters. You feel no attachment to any of them. Vicki Zhao was did nothing except play eye candy. You didn't know exactly what was going on until at least 45 minutes into the movie, and the main villain was absolutely laughable. There were scenes that were stuck there for no apparent reason at all. Either He Ping rushed this, or he had to clip out practically half the movie to make budget.Poorly developed characters and storyline. Even the music seemed inappropriate or cheesy at times. The only redeeming grace of this movie is its extraordinary cinematography. That and an attempt to add some symbolism in the movie with water and blood.Terrible movie. Not worth your money or time. If you want the same style but awesome story/characters, go for Musa.

Oorag This movie had all the trappings of a successful film, but was obviously did not come together in editing. Much of the third act was simply not there, and the use of voice-over to advance the plot was an obvious sign of internal problems. The movie as a whole is incredibly uneven, and the sudden inclusion of CGI hoodoo after the half-way point was jarring and unwelcome. Even still, just about all of the plot devices have been done better in other movies. Comparing this movie to Musa, Hero, and CTHD is doing those movies a disservice. While this movie is not bad, nothing raises it above mediocrity.