I've always hated Hong Kong -style super-human marshal art movies, and almost quit watching this with such martial art scene in the beginning. Bye-bye ten stars. So glad I continued, because rest of the movie is about the story, very beautiful, artistic scenes, emotions and acting. A few soft words, a look, a touch of a hand, a silent second speaks seldom so loudly. If this poetry of a movie does not touch your soul, live some more, you were too immature to watch it.In the end the empress asks, how many lives has passion burnt (ruined). I'm asking, how many movies did passion ruin. Certainly not this one.Many times I find these grand productions plagued with melodramatic loud over-acting when they attempt to make it larger than life. This movie used opposite means with a great success.

The Banquet is a Chinese wuxia drama film. It stars Zhang Ziyi, Ge You, Daniel Wu and Zhou Xun. It is a loose adaption of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, and features themes of revenge and fate. It is set in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in 10th century China.It was directed by Feng Xiaogang.Her empire on the verge of a massive revolution as storms begin to brew both within the royal court as well as in the outlying kingdoms, the entrancing Empress Wan gazes upon her stepson, Prince Wu Luan, with the eyes of a forbidden lover rather than a caring mother. When the emperor dies an unexpected death and his younger brother Li ascends to the throne, Empress Wan marries the newly appointed sovereign as a means of both protecting her beloved Wu Luan and cementing her position within the royal court. When assassins dispatched by Emperor Li fail in their attempt to silence Wu Luan and his majesty subsequently announces a lavish banquet, Empress Wan and Wu Luan realize that the time has finally come for them to take action against the murderous despot. This film is as eye opening as it is thought provoking.Xiaogang Feng presents a unique tale that is both beautifully filmed and well acted. Legendary fight choreographer Woo-ping Yuen orchestrates some beautifully fierce aerial battles that while no longer novel are still thrilling to watch. Great performances especially by Zhang Ziyi,who as the cold-hearted matriarch, she more than proves her abilities as an actress who is ready to move onto meatier roles that aren't driven by her beauty.This may be one of the rawest Shakespearean adaptation you'll ever see.

Not being a Shakespeare aficionado I didn't realise this was an adaptation of Hamlet although I did pick up on the Shakespearian aspects as far as the scale and tragedy are concerned. The Banquet also reminded me of The Curse of the Golden Flower – to which it is quite considerably superior in almost every aspect – in terms of the storyline crammed with intrigue in the royal court, the interaction of woefully dysfunctional families and the suggestion of incestuous diversions.Some reviewers have complained that the film is slow but I never really found time dragging. The set design and costumes are sumptuous and the performances are quite restrained for this type of flick. There are a number of tense scenes in between all the talk and a couple of stylised action scenes, mostly in slow motion. The fights are staged and choreographed like ballet dances at times. The score is used sparingly – and to incredibly good effect – while the storyline, although slightly convoluted at times, unfolds with agreeable style.The open ending is considered a weakness by some, but I'm not sure that we are supposed to be left wondering just who aims the final knife so much as the director is trying to make the impression that these intrigues, betrayals and murders will continue, simply with a new cast of duplicitous characters to replace the old.

Movies out of HK and China are increasingly rivaling or surpassing the best out of Hollywood in acting, cinematography, costuming and artistic vision. 'The Banquet' is a shining example.This is a loosely based interpretation of Hamlet adapted for the Tang dynasty period. In my opinion there is too much energy spent on this site debating whether it is a good adaptation of Hamlet, comparing it to other Hamlet films, etc. It is not a straight "remake" of Hamlet - it obviously takes inspiration from the play, and uses many of its elements, and that's it. So just sit back, watch it and judge it on its own merits.This is primarily a drama but it's sprinkled with great martial arts choreography a la Yuen Wo Ping. Many fight scenes follow the wu xia (fantasy kung fu) genre – just suspend your disbelief and enjoy the beautiful spectacle of it.A riveting moment comes when a one of the Emperor's mandarins (scholars who rule over the provinces) introduces Wan as "Dowager Empress", language that means Wan is the mother of an Emperor (Prince Wu Luan) and is a slap in the face to Li. Wan and Generals alike must decide where their allegiances lie.The acting is very good and I enjoyed Zhang Ziyi playing the lecherous Empress, You Ge playing a convincingly imperial Emperor and Xun Zhou as the naïve Qing in love with our 'Hamlet'.One of The Banquet's strong points is it is absolutely stunning visually, right from the first scene in a verdant and swaying bamboo forest that makes you wonder if such a beautiful place really exists. The costumes throughout are incredibly rich and detailed.It lags a little in the last half hour (maybe I was just tired) but to its credit does not run much longer than 2 hours.Highly recommended.