Sacrifice

If there's one thing that we learn from this historical epic from director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine), it is that if revenge is a dish best served cold (15-years cold in this case), its preparation should also be fiendishly complicated. Indeed, so tortuous is the plan of mild-mannered doctor Chen Ying to avenge the terrible wrong that was done to him by the warlord Tu Angu that, when the climax is reached, the revenger spends a whole scene explaining (with flashbacks) his logic to the revengee. Ultimately, neither looks convinced.

Like other big budget Chinese historical dramas, Sacrifice is made on a truly grand scale; sets are vast and beautifully detailed, costumes exquisite, and the extras multitudinous. Scenes of assassination and fighting are dramatically and lovingly staged, and Wang Xueqi is a powerful, sullen presence as Tu Angu. But these state-approved productions remain carefully and reverentially locked in the past and divorced from the life and energy of contemporary China. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]