Memories of the Sword

On the one hand, this film takes several notes from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and improves on them: the action and cinematography are almost unmatched by any film in the genre (Hero and Curse of the Golden Flower are the only two I can think of that come close). Whereas many Wuxia films tend to do more of the stupid wire choreography, Memories of the Sword blends the ridiculous with the more reasonable, grounded fighting of modern martial arts films in a way that meshes really nicely. Now for the negatives: I spent about a third of the movie not knowing what the heck was happening. MotS will jump into flashbacks without telling you and it's really easily to get lost because of this. Second, while the acting was very good, Sul-Hee spent more than half the movie crying, which, if I'm being honest, was really, really annoying. The characters in this movie spend most of it crying. While that may realistic, it's not really enjoyable. Overall, it really just depends on whether or not a movie will bother you if the story is inaccessible. It doesn't always bother me, but it did here, so I don't feel like I can go more than three stars. However, it earns those three stars; the things it does well, it does really, really well.

Quite brief but thrilling...I enjoyed it very much

Drama heavy story of a child seeking vengeance. The cinematography stands out; however, it’s the editing that really hurts this film. The plot involves multiple interesting characters that never get fleshed out. The fight scenes seldom convey mastery and power. Subtitles are done well.

If a movie make you cry and makes think about it after the movie. The lingering thought, what could be done and what should be done. That is a great movie.