MILD SPOILERS AHEAD Rating: 6.7
Fate has not been as kind to this film as it has been to "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", while the latter became the highest-grossing foreign film in the US ever and had the distinction of being recognized both as an art film and a mainstream action flick, this film has yet to get it though it is also both.
But then again, it's not as good. The plot is high melodrama and equal parts "Count of Monte Cristo" and "Romeo and Juliet". Fallen nobleman once had it all, then he loses it all, and takes revenge to get back all he has lost. Lots of people die in the process. None of the intricacy and complexity, or much less, than in CTHD. There's more fights, and they're dazzlingly choreographed, though sometimes the hero uses a move that could have come out of a Mortal Kombat game. I felt like walking out of the cinema halfway through, so be warned, especially when the melodrama heaps on and on in one highly obvious "plot twist" after another. But by the end it gets back on its feet and delivers both a touching love story and a dazzling swordplay film with equal ease.
I didn't think it measured up, but it grows on you with repeated viewings. Unlike the purely Chinese nature of CTHD, BCM is fusion cuisine that has a score with 80s speed-metal and classical piano, an entire CGI "passage of seasons" sequence complete with morphing techniques and bullet-time slo-mos in a Chinese setting.
Daring, to say the least, but not always effective. Overall, still a nice way to pass two hours. In terms of war films, comparing CTHD and BCM is like comparing "The Thin Red Line" and "Enemy at the Gates".
Fate has not been as kind to this film as it has been to "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", while the latter became the highest-grossing foreign film in the US ever and had the distinction of being recognized both as an art film and a mainstream action flick, this film has yet to get it though it is also both.
But then again, it's not as good. The plot is high melodrama and equal parts "Count of Monte Cristo" and "Romeo and Juliet". Fallen nobleman once had it all, then he loses it all, and takes revenge to get back all he has lost. Lots of people die in the process. None of the intricacy and complexity, or much less, than in CTHD. There's more fights, and they're dazzlingly choreographed, though sometimes the hero uses a move that could have come out of a Mortal Kombat game. I felt like walking out of the cinema halfway through, so be warned, especially when the melodrama heaps on and on in one highly obvious "plot twist" after another. But by the end it gets back on its feet and delivers both a touching love story and a dazzling swordplay film with equal ease.
I didn't think it measured up, but it grows on you with repeated viewings. Unlike the purely Chinese nature of CTHD, BCM is fusion cuisine that has a score with 80s speed-metal and classical piano, an entire CGI "passage of seasons" sequence complete with morphing techniques and bullet-time slo-mos in a Chinese setting.
Daring, to say the least, but not always effective. Overall, still a nice way to pass two hours. In terms of war films, comparing CTHD and BCM is like comparing "The Thin Red Line" and "Enemy at the Gates".