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Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This is a movie about an event that actually happened in Chinese history, but it takes artistic license and changes what happened in reality. The result is an almost unrecognizable story to what happened with Liu Bang and Xiang Yu during the war of Chu-Han contention.The story is about one of the most famous war in Chinese history between the two rivals Liu Bang and Xiang Yu for the control of entire China. History is clear about who the winner is and Liu Bang becomes the first emperor of the Han dynasty. But this is one of the most exciting story in Chinese history next to "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".Whatever they changed from the historical story actually made the story worse. I have no idea why the producers chose to make the story into the drama that is this movie. The plot of the original story is far better than this story. There is no build up to the conflict that happens in the real story of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu. It also doesn't show why Xiang Yu who was clearly winning at the start, ended up losing his force, and eventually gets surrounded by Liu Bang's army. Feast at the Hong gate was one of the turning point of this war, and Xiang Yu had a once in a life time opportunity to kill Liu Bang, but failed to cash in on this opportunity. He never recovered from this mistake, and his tactics meanders after this meeting until his eventual demise.There is so much highlight scenes in this war, and the characters were all so interesting, but this movie screwed all of this up. All the good details of the story never made it into this movie. The two hour long movie could easily have been an hour and a half if the useless drama the script writer inserted into the story were edited out.Failure of script writing is the ultimate downfall of this movie. Compared to "The Red Cliff I and II" where director John Woo carefully inserted his interpretation to the story, which made that story so good, this movie had no such story telling behind it.Too bad, for the money they put into this movie, it could have been another "Assassin" level production. A better movie about Liu Bang and Xiang Yu is awaited with more spot light on the interesting characters, and build up to the story.

Two sword brothers of war in a historical Chinese era, running into conflicts with each other and because of a certain girl. Sounds familiar? Well it's because it has been done before many times in films. But that is just a small part of this whole well crafted film It actually has a great strategic and tactical story with characters that stand out. One is a Liu Bang who is a calm, courageous, collective, soft and yet strong-willed leader that also has a sense of wisdom and understanding. And yet manipulative and a sufficient schemer as well. His men are loyal to him for his will and heart. Liu Bang is backed up by a wise historical strategist that went by Zhang Liang, who was known for being diligent and clever. While the other side is is a powerful, confident, tough, charismatic and very ambitious leader that has good leadership qualities named Xiang Yu. His army is loyal to him for his strengths(plus he gets involved in the battles bravely). And a very wise counselor on his side that goes by Fan Zeng or Yafu. Who was even wiser than Zhang Liang was his right hand man and his mentor. Personally I liked Xiang Yu's character more, at least how he is portrayed in this film. It's a Chinese historical war movie with some exaggerated elements that has strategy and tactics. And both sides leaders are from Chu. Despite the situation it seemed like Zhang Liang or Fan Zeng should have been the emperor. Anyways both sides are on a race to defeat Qin army and save the people of Xiangyang while winning over the people. After the Chu lost to the Qin. The story is a good combination of brains, brawn, strategy, tactics and building strength and reputation within the two armies. In another words this isn't a narrow head to head, battles to battles movie. But a entertaining film that has a good story and substance and not just crazy swords and spears fighting. It's even more entertaining if the viewer doesn't know much about the outcome to this history. The whole thing is a grand-scale and thrilling power struggle. Where it doesn't pick a side but stays in the middle ground for the most part. Although it does focus more on Liu Bang's side a bit for a reason. Now a lot of what goes down in this film might be exaggerated or fictitious. A bit more development with the characters would have been better. And Crystal Yifei Liu character just seemed to be there just to add a bit or irrelevant romance element in. And give the two lead characters a bit more motivation. But it's still a enthralling, thrilling. fast-paced(for the most part) and entertaining film, sometimes that is what matters. It even had a high production and budget. Highly recommended to any one that wants to see a war/action film with substance.8/10

I was fortunate enough to have caught this film during a long haul flight from Nagoya to Detroit. The English title was nondescript and did not hold much promise in itself. But luckily, I took that chance and witnessed a grand film inspired by an episode of Chinese history with some personal significance.It is said that our family line extends from Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty. It was very interesting to see him portrayed in a movie for me to get a further idea of who this illustrious ancestor was. The movie is set in the waning days of the Qin Dynasty. The impulsive Xiang Yu (Feng Shaofeng) and the compassionate Liu Bang (Leon Lai) lead the forces against the last Qin Emperor. But both of them also aspire to become the new Emperor themselves, leading to confrontation of military strategy and wits. There is also the additional gambit of a common love interest in the character of Yu Ji (YiFei Liu) to further spice up the conflicts.The secondary characters of the respective wise advisers for each camp were as much front and center as the two lead characters. These were the elderly blind Fan Zeng (Anthony Wong) for camp Xiang Yu and the younger but equally masterful Zhang Liang (Hanyu Zhang) for camp Liu Bang. Watching their climactic battle-royale on the Weiqi game board was quite a spectacle to watch as filmed, although admittedly my lack of knowledge about game mechanics detracted from full appreciation. Those vague English subtitles with seemingly random numbers did not help at all.It took time to get into the story as the story was told in flashbacks and the characters could all look the same until you get to know each one in more detail. The director Daniel Lee helps us by employing some color-coordination in the costumes to distinguish whose forces were whose. Once you get into the groove of the story, it will draw you into its spell. The contrast of both rivals to the throne was emphasized up the film's conclusion, as one ended with melodramatic romance, and the other ended steeped in political paranoia. It was a well-told story overall, although we know this could not have been how it exactly happened in real life. It does make me want to read more about the actual historical events that inspired this movie.

The Asian film market deliver some of the biggest epic action period films in the industry. In addition they usually follow some piece of actual history which is the case in the latest White Vengeance. Will this epic action piece of history live up the normal quality experience they are known for? White Vengeance follows the story of two brothers contending for supremacy during the fall of the Qin Dynasty during the events of the Chu-Han Contention and the Feast at Hong Gate. As expected this film delivers the scope and scale needed to bring this historical story to life. At first the film seems to struggle a bit with too much going on to keep up with itself without getting cluttered in confusion. This seems more due to just too much historical information stuffed into one film. If you are not all that aware of the history, it's a bit hard to follow. If you are aware of it or just able to take the journey and not worry about some aspects then this film works really well. The first half does deliver the action, but still manages to take its own sweet time to develop the characters and direction. The clever nature of the story makes it a bit more than just your average martial arts epic, but instead a clever woven tale that plays like the game of wits. The battles feel as epic as they are intended to be, but still keep a bit of a personal touch as opposed to just the pile of mindless soldiers killing each other.There is a love story side of this film that just seemed to slow everything down and not all that necessary. This isn't the best of this genre to come along, mostly due to some of it's slow pace and runs a bit longer than it really needed to be, but is entertaining. If you are a fan of the epic martial arts period pieces then you should give this one a try.http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey