First off, I have to say that I love Wong Kar-Wai’s films. I’ve seen practically every film the man has put out. Second, this is quite possibly one of the most interesting films in his filmography, and I’m amazed that no one – especially Kino, who has put out most of Wong’s films – has picked up the rights to remaster and distribute this film in the US.

The film itself is a great take on the wuxia genre, and Wong’s experimental touch is shown through the distorted action sequences and jagged chronology. However, the shoddy translation and even worse dialog synchronization really detract from the viewing experience. Also, I’m not sure if this problem was related to the tiny TV I watched the film on, but it seems like instead of the widescreen image being placed in the center of the screen it was moved to the top of the screen, creating a weird effect that was really disorienting. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention how there are instances where there are Chinese subtitles that appear at the bottom of the screen. That you can’t remove.

Personally, I’d stray away from this copy of the film. If you can, try finding another version. There just has to be a decent HK version somewhere that does this film some sort of justice.