I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet The Banquet, directed by Feng Xiaogang, is a lavishly produced tale of incest, corruption and revenge during the fall of the Tang Dynasty, a period known as the 'Five Dynasties of Ten Kingdoms'. A web of intrigue has been woven within the walls of the Imperial Palace that ultimately leads to tragedy and bloodshed. The Banquet is by no means a masterpiece, but it is a gloriously spectacular work of visual art with some fine performances, mainly from two of China's brightest stars - Zhang Ziyi and Xun Zhou. Sadly, it's hard to feel any compassion for the three main characters, as they are often cold and callous, putting a distance between them and the viewer. SLP

I'm a big fan of Chinese movies, Ziyi Zhang and Shakespeare, so I was definitely looking forward to this movie. The story is inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet and does an excellent job of translating the classic to an historic setting at the end of the Tang dynasty. I especially enjoyed the reinterpretation of Hamlet's mother as Prince Wu Luan's former lover (there was always something uncomfortably incestuous in Shakespeare's original). The acting is superb with kudos to both Ziyi Zhang and You Ge for creating a pair of very complex characters as Empress and Emperor. Some of the dialog is poetic in spite of not being Shakespearean. The sets were sumptuous. And Qing Nu's song at the end was beautiful!So where did it go wrong? Except for Qing's song, the rest of the music was annoyingly obtrusive. Most of the action scenes were stylized and shot in slow motion. And many times the annoying music was playing during the slow motion action sequences, which effectively doubled the annoyance. Only the Prince's "audition" was a meaningful, well constructed action sequence. Finally, it could have been edited better with the movie reduced by about 15 minutes. There were several scenes that just didn't make sense. For example, there is a beautiful shot of Empress Wan entering the water naked, but it has no relation to what came before or after (ok, maybe that scene doesn't need context, but it just seemed out of place).Overall, a decent movie with flashes of brilliance but having one too many flaws to rank any higher.

I'm gonna say it directly about my thought of this movie. The plot is too long and too boring, the story somehow ridiculous and Daniel's character especially is very weak and his character doesn't a bit close enough with "Hamlet". The setting is good but it's too dark since almost everything are in black and red. This is somehow a bit disappointment and "Curse of the golden flower" is much better than this movie. The director couldn't bring the talents of the artists. Zhang Zi Yi and Zhou Xun are may be who acted well. The ending also silly and unexplained. The queen just died without being explained who's the killer. Enough of this quite disappointment movie.I won't suggest any of you to watch this movie.

I really don't have too much good things to say about this film...1. There are an excessive amount of baroque, while both storyline and characters fall short for being too predictable and seemingly unreal, respectively. There was a dream-like quality to whole movie experience, but it was not an enjoyable one.2. And there are too much perfectly choreographed death scenes... I mean, c'mon! WHO DIES LIKE THAT?! For example, there is a scene on the bridge where the new emperor's assassins synchronously killed themselves (for their failure). Or the scene on the snowy field where the imperial guards, again, synchronously fall from their horses after been struck by arrows.3. The ending (i.e. the banquet) didn't come as a surprise (at least to me). And by this point, I was a bit sick of the whole thing because amidst the grandeur of set (who knows how much was thrown on the set design and the costumes), the storyline was shallow.4. Please DO NOT compare this to Hamlet! Hamlet's character was 1000% better developed. We saw Hamlet's numerous soliloquies and understood his internal turmoil. What did we see in this film?This film also very much reminded me of "the curse of the golden flower." There is very little story-telling or character development; instead, the audience is bedeviled with flashy background and beautiful choreography, much like those horrible Star War prequels by George Lucas.Attention directors! We, the audience, demand a balance. Learn not just to tell a beautiful story with you fancy toys; tell a great story, one that is based on your refined script!