A long exposition about the character "sword," written by Broken Sword and presented to the king by Nameless, only goes further to underline the political and philosophical chaos that Zhang has become embroiled in, but he seems content to allow the Chinese "culture" of the whole thing to override any need for logical coherence.
Zhang's attempt to transform the selfish individualism of martial arts fighters into a superficial universal love kills all the glamor and fascination of the chivalric spirit. The freedom that characters like Nameless, Snow and Broken Sword are supposed to represent gets all twisted up into a tool of a political exposition.
But all this does not become clear until late in the film, which gets bogged down in its Rashomon structure, telling and retelling the story, leaving very little room for character development. This superficiality is embodied in the character of Moon, played by Zhang Ziyi, who is little more than a face and a clothes rack.
Unfortunately, this is almost the case with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung as well. Fans of In the Mood for Love can only feel pity for the two great actors wasting their talent on such two-dimensional characters.
The most impressive acting is done by Chen Daoming (
The final scene, showing the king's greatest achievement, the building of the Great Wall -- and all it represents -- can only make one laugh at its total lack of subtlety.
Not only has Zhang compromised the spirit of the chivalric hero, he seems to have compromised his own integrity as well.
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