I chose to watch this film based on the fact that it had been directed by Ronnie Yu, who is the director of the 1993 movie, The Bride With White Hair, starring Brigitte Lin, which I'm quite a fan of. Yu later went on to make movies in Hollywood and directed such films as Bride of Chucky (1998), and Freddy Vs. Jason (2003). He also directed British film The 51st State (2001) (a.k.a. Formula 51 in some countries) starring Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle, and later Jet Li's Fearless (2006), which I'm also a big fan of.
Now, my grasp of Chinese history is pretty sketchy at the best of times, with almost all of my knowledge coming by way of osmosis through watching Chinese films. Over the years I've picked up on the names of many of the different dynasties, emperors, generals, heroes, etc., but could never really form a coherent picture of what happened when. So I have no idea which film's are based on truth, or which ones are pure fiction, or both. So most of the movies that are based on events or stories from Chinese history generally seem new to me, and this one is no different. I suspect that your familiarity with these stories may well affect how much you might enjoy this movie.
Watch the trailer on YouTube (Embedding has been disabled).
