User reviews

Typical Chinese movie: historically false and exaggerated in the sensitivity and depth of the characters. Interesting but distorted historical setting and boring.

First of all, signing up Aaron Kwok as the third son of the tycoon and the third master of the banking empire was a completely miscast. There were so many Mainland China actors in could play this role, yet the movie production decided to use Kwok was an unforgivable mistake. Not only he didn't look alike a member of the family, and instead of used voice over to replace his real voice in heavy Hong Kong Cantonese dialect accent to speak the goofy Mandarin Chinese was such a stupid arrangement. Then instead of using the traditional Chinese umbrellas, we saw so many modern day western umbrellas being used in this movie. Then again, we heard the Italian tenor singing the opera aria, the young wife hiring a western nanny, and the young wife speaking English with her nanny...Jesus, all of these obvious mess ups shown in the early stage of the movie almost killed me to watch.

First off this movie LOOKS great. The cinematography, the period costumes, the landscapes and the sets were masterfully done in exacting details giving the movie a genuine feel of the period (Late Imperial China during the Boxer Rebellion). It is an historical drama as well as a tragic love story telling of a pivotal time in a family. The gravity of the film never lets up and the drama is, at some points, a bit over the top but the subject matter, the crumbling of a banking family by external and internal problems, is a heavy one. This movie comes with some very harsh scenes and will not be for everyone but those who enjoy well shot, well acted (if not a bit over the top on the drama), and well set period pieces with a touch of history will like the movie. I did.