Sorry, this movie sucks

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Let us hope the rumors are wrong, that the rights holder of Dao (Warner Bros?) is not pulling this film from theatrical release forever, and that the lucky sold-out audience at Walter Reade Theater tonight will not be the last people on planet Earth to see this towering achievement of cinema on the big screen.That said, tonight's screening of a near-pristine 35-mm print was the experience of a lifetime. Tsui Hark's re-imagining of Chang Cheh's 1967 Dubei dao (The One-Armed Swordsman), is (in the words of Subway Cinema curators) "a psycho-tronic phantasmagoria full of scars and tattoos, mutilation, amputation, sexual frustration, and sharp, heavy chunks of steel splitting muscle and breaking bones" - but most of all a story of love and kindness in a world that may be damaged beyond redemption.Original Music by Ying-Wah Wong (as Raymond Wong) and Wai Lap Wu is fantastic. The soundtrack album to be sought out. Any help in finding will be appreciated.

i've heard a lot about the inventive camera-work and direction in this movie. i thought both were a messalso some truly terrible acting. the main 'heroine' in the movie is irritating beyond belief and has absolutely nothing useful to contribute in any situation. everything she does or says is stupid, and she generally just seems to mess peoples lives up. if she could fight, i might forgive heroverall all the women in this movie are stereotypical 'broads' in need of a man to save them. and all the men in this movie are muscle bound dim wits capable of saving no onethis is a poor movie, and i urge you to avoid it. watch something like 'the sword of doom' instead, it's much better than this confusing mess of a film.

The great thing about this film (and the sort of thing that upsets people who like seeing martial arts fights where you can see every kick and every punch) is that most of the fighting is just blurs of motion punctuated by shouting and clashing blades. This is what I love in HK fantasies: fight scenes that are so incomprehensible you're left going: huh?Tsui Hark's best example is Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, where the viewer has to actually fill in the blanks for themselves. It's edited in such a way that that the film we see feels like only a portion of the story. In some contexts this technique would be stupid, but in fantasy it's wonderful. It's the inverse of the computer graphics bare-all approach, and it's lucky that we had the HK film industry to provide an alternative to Hollywood in this regard. (I say had, because, since Storm Riders, cg in HK is more prevalent than before.)This approach to fight scenes is impressionistic, and with the final fightscene in Dao it's almost operatic. At no stage do you get a feeling that the fight is actually rational. The use of sound and music in the film is also wonderful, especially in the menacing flashback scene. It's hard to think of a more effective way of setting up a backstory, and gives new life to that tired old cliche, the revenge story.So that's all good. Sometimes, however, the impressionism gets a bit out of hand. Things take on a Wong Kar Wai pretentiousness, like the horrible Ashes of time, where Leslie Cheung sits around feeling sorry for himself for no appreciable reason. In Dao, the voiceover of the female character gets really annoying. Her mutterings only really serve to remind us she is there, as she has only one pivotal scene in the film (where tells the hero his origin story).The film is also a bit over-bloody for my taste, but it certainly leaves one with no illusions about the brutalness of the world in which the film is set.Dao is one of those films that is so strange and vivid it leaves a strong resonance with the viewer long after it is over. It has faults by the barrel, but I'd rather have it and Tsui Hark with us than a legion of James Camerons and Roland Emmerichs.

This is a fantastic fantasy film, not only has it got many exciting characters, it also has a story that builds up the injustice and leaves you crying out for revenge. You also wonder who is the main character, is it the woman telling the story? Or is it the sword brandishing heroes? As the final scenes come you are really cheering for revenge to be done.I read the previous summary and it's got some errors in it. The main Character doesn't actually loose his hand to the tattoed Dragon, he looses it long before this mythical character turns up.Also, this book he finds isn't called "the blade" and the fencing style he uses he discovers himself as he in frustration spins around and strikes out at at things, discovering the power of spinning around at great speed.