Not a bad film by any means, but it was not excellent either. It was visually stunning and deserving of its oscar wins (minus cinematography). I especially liked Gong Li here, but Zhang Ziyi was also good.

B

It wasn't the actresses faults about the accents, it was a directorial choice -- and a bad one. Just as non-English singers can be coached to sing in note perfect English, these top professional actresses could have had dialogue coaches throughout the filming. This film should have either been filmed in Japanese with subtitles, or with the lead actresses speaking in full proper coached English. The Engrish middle ground served neither the plot, nor the tone of this film. It ruined the illusion of being in historical Japan, probably solely for the reason of BO -- the kind of audience who's going to go see an American film adaptation of an American author's take on the culture of old Japan, is not going to tolerate subtitles, and likely prefer to hear the actresses sound uncultured in order to maintain their illusion of Western superiority...

For me, this movie was a huge revelation. Id bought the dvd about a year after it came out and it sat on my dvd rack ever since. I was reluctant to watch it despite high praise.

Finally i watched it tonight and i thought it was sensational. Everything up until the americans worked for me, and even then i thoroughly enjoyed it. Truly, Zhang Ziyi has proven herself amongst the greatest actresses in Chinese cinema. She stands up strong against Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh.

Highly recommended
A-

I thought Ziyi's bland turn here was one of the reasons why this movie actually didn't end up as good as it could have been.

It's still a visual feast, though.

The final scene in this movie had me absolutley certain she is a great actress. Beforehand i was unsure, which is unfair of me, since i was only unsure because she is so beautiful.


Having seen three Ziyi movies in the past week, i think this is her best turn yet.

I thought that one scene in particular was simply too unconvincing. It was the deciding point for me as wwell, just in the different direction.

Tang Wei, from what I've seen in Lust, Caution, is a much better actress.

Clearly we have different desires from films and performances. I know that I rarely watch a performance people rave about and agree with the praise, but always find more understated, less showy performances to be better.

I always found Zhang Ziyi to be under-rated, but she was simply divine in this movie, the evolution of her character was great and the performances from all of the supporting cast were also excellent.

Anyway, i really don't understand why this film was frowned upon by the film community, I was actually recommended it very highly by five or six people before I bought the DVD, I guess people just have a pulse on what I'd respond to.

This is a very good film. One of the best films of 2005. I dont have the same problems with it as others do and its very enjoyable too.

Grade : A

My boyfriend has been begging me to watch this with him or about six months now and I'm finally being forced to watch it tonight (well, I told him I would if he did the dishes ). I hope it doesn't suck, the reviews I read in here made me a little more hopeful.

Zhang Yizi is best in 2046.

It's probably easy to be at ones best when Kar Wai Wong is the director