When watching wuxia pics, I many time would end up liking the villain more than the hero because the villains are usually more badass and always had more fun. Not in this movie, the heroes are pretty badass and the villains are pretty badass too, except for this one who's a pretty boy.
The plot and characters are great, John Woo stuff, a lot of honor and betrayl without the doves or crucifix metaphors. The sets are a bit phony and the choreography is slower than what we have now, but I still like it, a lot.
The actions as I've said before are slower than the undercranked wirefu we've got now but I liked them because they're really well-choreographed, the shots and takes are a lot longer and a lot more are happening on screen than what we have now, kinda makes up for the slow speed.
But this is a lot better written than the stuff we have now, I miss those old school pictures. We have the technology now, why can't we make the ones with them old school sensibilities?
John Woo, please put down that Tom Cruise over there and come back.