Stunning cinematography, set design (outshines Blenheim Palace) and choreography! Worth seeing in its own right and as a reference point for many aspects of Hamlet. It's surprising how such meaningful changes could be wrought upon basically the same set of scenes. Brilliant resolutions of some character issues in the original. The Emperor and Empress have more consistent, less conflicted rationales than Claudius and Gertrude, as does the version of Laertes (no need here for an "oops, shot the arrow awry" speech). In this version, guilt is clear and characters get what they deserve, except for Ophelia. It raises Ophelia's profile to great effect and reduces Hamlet's, so given the loss of the language of the play this version is not a replacement for the original, but in many ways it is more focused.

Loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet The Banquet, directed by Feng Xiaogang, is a lavishly produced tale of incest, corruption and revenge during the fall of the Tang Dynasty, a period known as the 'Five Dynasties of Ten Kingdoms'. A web of intrigue has been woven within the walls of the Imperial Palace that ultimately leads to tragedy and bloodshed. The Banquet is by no means a masterpiece, but it is a gloriously spectacular work of visual art with some fine performances, mainly from two of China's brightest stars - Zhang Ziyi and Xun Zhou. Sadly, it's hard to feel any compassion for the three main characters, as they are often cold and callous, putting a distance between them and the viewer. SLP

Recap: In an ancient Chinese kingdom a noble has murdered his brother and intends to wed his widow in order to become the next emperor. But in doing so he creates a scenario where his claim to the throne are weak and many foes lurk in the shadows to either avenge his brother or to claim power to themselves. Everyone has an agenda and no one will stop at murder. The new emperor must get rid of the prince, his brother's son that has legitimate claims to the throne. The princess clearly wants to avenge his father, but also has fallen in love with the empress maid. This maid is the sister to a general and daughter to the minister that wants to claim power for his own family. And in the middle of it all, the empress herself, that is unhappily in love with the prince, jealous of her maid and wants the throne for herself. But with so many players, the game is too complex to evolve as anyone planned. (The movie is apparently loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet)Comments: Very poetic. True to recent Chinese tradition of making movies it is stunningly beautiful. Every move choreographed, bright colors and abundant scenes with slow motion. It is very much like a long, visual poem. Poetic. Touching and stunningly beautiful. Truly a well made movie. However, true to recent Chinese tradition of movies it is also far too focused on the visual, with the storytelling taking the back seat. How beautiful it is, without a strong story no movie can be a complete success. And when fights are over choreographed its meaning starts to lack plausibility. The story becomes too hard to believe in and then the stunningly beautiful visual parts are not enough. For some stretches it becomes too slow, to dull, even if it is in the middle of an assassination attempt or sword fights. It's stretched far too thin. But, for its genre it is clearly a step in the right direction. Compared to other Chinese movies, for example Flying Daggers, this is much better at keeping tempo. Not quite there yet, but clearly better than movies before it.Also the fairytale components are kept to a minimum. Not so poetic maybe, but it makes the movie better. They are there, a few brief details. But not disturbingly much as the tree running that in my opinion crippled Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for example.Still, for all its faults it is actually quite a good movie. I think it could have been better with a stronger story, a higher tempo and more focus on authenticity and plausibility. But the strong visual parts make up for a lot of it and I enjoyed it.7/10

I'm a big fan of Chinese movies, Ziyi Zhang and Shakespeare, so I was definitely looking forward to this movie. The story is inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet and does an excellent job of translating the classic to an historic setting at the end of the Tang dynasty. I especially enjoyed the reinterpretation of Hamlet's mother as Prince Wu Luan's former lover (there was always something uncomfortably incestuous in Shakespeare's original). The acting is superb with kudos to both Ziyi Zhang and You Ge for creating a pair of very complex characters as Empress and Emperor. Some of the dialog is poetic in spite of not being Shakespearean. The sets were sumptuous. And Qing Nu's song at the end was beautiful!So where did it go wrong? Except for Qing's song, the rest of the music was annoyingly obtrusive. Most of the action scenes were stylized and shot in slow motion. And many times the annoying music was playing during the slow motion action sequences, which effectively doubled the annoyance. Only the Prince's "audition" was a meaningful, well constructed action sequence. Finally, it could have been edited better with the movie reduced by about 15 minutes. There were several scenes that just didn't make sense. For example, there is a beautiful shot of Empress Wan entering the water naked, but it has no relation to what came before or after (ok, maybe that scene doesn't need context, but it just seemed out of place).Overall, a decent movie with flashes of brilliance but having one too many flaws to rank any higher.