And there are a lot of scenes, all elaborately composed and sumptuously shot, all carrying the same enervating gravitas. Armies in battle never looked so glorious, teardrops so crystalline, as through the regal cinematography of Zhao Fei (who, ditching gravitas, went on to shoot Woody Allen's ''Sweet and Lowdown'').
But who ARE these characters? Who are all the other schemers and dreamers plotting or being plotted against? Are we in the ancient kingdom of Qin or Yan or Zhao or Han at any given moment of the 161 moments on screen? Chen the stirring filmmaker doesn't say; his eye is on galloping horses in the distance.
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