I was looking forward to this film but it was a big letdown. The best parts of the film (and why I give it as much as a 4) are; 1) The efforts of the two main actresses. They really tried but those efforts were wasted on the uninspired dialogue, directing and editing. 2) The physical beauty of the settings, sets and some of the lighting and atmosphere. Even here, we have to subtract the fact that the movie was obviously not filmed in China and did not do a good job of pretending to be in China. The success there was in this area was wasted on the problems itemized below.
The bad parts of the film were; 1) Almost no character development. Every character is uninteresting. The two men are nothing but self centred brutes with no other characteristics. There was not much more depth to the women. It was hard to develop a full sympathy for them. And that is too bad. The opportunity was there and the actresses were there to do it. 2) Uneven story progression. It frequently goes from scene to scene in a disjointed fashion. How much useful content was cut? This seems to want to be an artistic, lush film. So why not stretch it out to 120 minutes or more and do justice to the characters and the story? This might simply be the director's fault but the editors and producers might have played a part in that. 3) Thin story. Not much happens. Some films can get away with that, but here, we don't even get nicely drenched in what does happen. 4) Uninspired directing. We get neither a fully indulgent artistic film nor something brash and in-your-face nor any kind of satisfying balance thereof. To be fair, the director might have actually created the material for a better film which was then badly edited. Alternatively, maybe the diversity of the production crew prevented the film from having a clear identity. 5) Old hat, tired symbolism. I don't want to put in specific spoilers but suffice it to say that it was very obvious and hyper familiar. 6) Lost potential. It's just a shame when some good components and potential are lost.
