Bichunmoo

OK, this movie is no Lord of the Rings, or even Crouching Tiger.

So what? It might not be a masterpiece of world cinema, but it's rather fun.

The plot is cheesy (big plot holes as well) and the love story severely cliché, however the art design and sets are beautiful, the fights fun enough (though a bit puzzling), the leads are all appealing and there is melodrama and angst galore.

Yeah, you could do better (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Musa). But if star-crossed lovers, revenge and period movies are your thing, and you don't mind a few bits where the plot is confusing and/or over-the-top, you can do much worse than Bichunmoo.

The movie strays from the original manhwa, mostly due to time restraints. Therefore some of the characters are barely introduced and their actions seem very random. You should watch the series that came out a few years later that goes into a lot more detail and character development. Still was a good movie though.

A movie that covers the gamut of emotions plus great action. This is the best movie I've seen.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian Empire with the descendants of Genghis Kan rules China. In this environment, the poor Jinha (Shin Hyun-June) is raised by his uncle that teaches him the secret martial art of the Bichun. The daughter of a concubine of the powerful General Taruga (Hak-cheol Kim), Sullie (Hee-seon Kim), is raised with him and they have a crush on each other. When her mother dies, Sullie's father brings her to the Taruga House and she tells Jinha that she would wait for him. But the general promises her to the powerful Chinese lord Namgung Junkwang (Jin-yeong Jeong) to increase his power with the alliance. When Jinha's uncle is lethally wounded by warriors that want to know the secrets of Bichun, he discloses the Korean royal origins of Jinha. While traveling to meet Sullie, Jimha befriends Junkwang without knowing that he is the man that will marry Sullie. Sooner Jinha is betrayed and almost dies; along the years, he fights against the Mongolian Empire. When he meets Sullie again years later, she discloses a family secret to him.

"Bichunmoo" is a movie with a promising beginning and wonderful art direction, costumes and soundtrack; unfortunately it is also too long, with a confused screenplay, and melodramatic like a soap opera. In a certain moment, the story becomes messy with many betrayals and confused situations and it is hard to the viewer to know who is who. In 2000, "Bichunmoo" was the most expensive Korean movie ever made. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Bichunmoo, A Saga de um Guerreiro" ("Bichunmoo, the Saga of a Warrior")

This movie does a fairly good job of tying together a bunch of clichéd tragic plots. The action is okay but a bit cheesy. The wire work isn't too ridiculous. It doesn't really have anything to offer martial arts fans. A lot of the fighting is supernatural and the blows don't even connect.

It has some problems with the plot. Every few minutes a character will run off and do something stupid just to make the viewer sad. There is a gap of about 15 years in the middle of the film during which important things happen but the film just continues without explaining them. You never actually find out why all the characters are where and they are and doing what they're doing after this gap.