Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Zhimin The images are very impressed. The color, the shadow, the depth of field and the framing are excellent. Every individual image is a great picture! Specially in the scene of presenting Ruyi as the master of the family, the soft lens makes Ruyi's white clothes flared, so that it emphasizes her special position in the family as well as her angel image. We often see the sexual victim as woman. As contrary, this movie describes a male victim from the sex abuse of his sister and his brother-in-law. The tragedy goes deeper when this victim destroys the others and himself. In summary, this movie is on my collection list.

emuir-1 As the story unfolded I began to feel that it had been cribbed from a Russian novel. A set of unlikeable codependent characters feeding on each other's misery. The dark tale of a once powerful family's decadent descent into impotent obscurity serves as an allegory for the Ching dynasty. I only wish that there had been more character development, the minor family member Duanyu, who ended as the head of the family - what was his motivation for his betrayal of Ruyi? The photography is sumptious, and the performances beyond reproach. The films moves slowly and requires the audience to pay attention, but for those who like a dark tale of pending doom and destruction it is worth it.

Curious-from south I rented this movie because it sounded sexy and hot. It was ..mmmm... well made period drama WITH NO SKIN!!! Now the depiction of love and longing and the moral struggle was nicely (albeit slowly) depicted, lack of sex on screen made it very...lame.

smallchief What you can say about this movie is that it was not directed by Zhang Yimou who did (if I'm not mistaken) Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou which were excellent movies. This is similar -- but inferior -- to Zhang's work. Gong Li, the lead actress, is less sensual than usual, the story is convoluted and complicated, the ending is exactly like that of every other movie I've seen in which Gong Li is the lead, and the story strains credibility. The lead male character, Zhong, is sort of a Chinese Tom Cruise. The women all love him, despite the fact that he's a louse. He suffers horribly because they suffer because of their love for him. Nobody suffers as much as Gong Li. Tragic ending predictable. The photography was good. That's about all.