The Banquet, 夜宴

Enjoyed this a LOT more than The Promise.

Zhang Ziyi. Zhou Xun. Shakespearean tragedy. Everybody dies. Enough said.

No sucky Japanese nor Korean actors in this one. Definitely a good sign.

A proper period movie with proper Chinese speaking proper Mandarin.

When I'm watching a Chinese period movie, the accent and the dialogue is the most important ingredient that takes me INTO the movie.

And that's why The Promised sucked to high heaven. With a Korean co-lead and a Japanese co-lead with their ridiculous grating accent. That and the Superman theme too.

Back to the Banquet...

If you've never read Hamlet, the story goes something like:

Prince loves Zhang Ziyi, but daddy beats him to the punch and makes her his empress.

Depressed prince goes Emo takes up dancing.

Emperor dies. His brother takes the throne.

The brother wants to kill the prince and marry Zhang Ziyi.

Zhang Ziyi wants to kill her brother-in-law to have her prince.

Prince wants his uncle dead to avenge his father.

Zhou Xun is in there somewhere as an adviser's daughter who's in love with the prince.

Action ensues.

There's a number of sword fighting scenes. But choreographed for style. Very dance-like. Nothing as good as Hero.

The selling point is the dialogue, and the lack of foreign actors. Enjoyed the movie.