Cliff Walkers

One suspense setpiece after another but the movie itself never quite comes into focus.

While there was some suspense and I liked the initial premise of the film, this one struggled connect the dots, and even ruined a perfectly fine evening for me and the wife with both of us growing increasingly annoyed by the experience, resulting in her going to bed early. Not going to be remembered as a positive experience, though I won't blame it all on the film.

Beautiful imagery, great use of snow and a cool setting in 1930s Harbin. It gets confusing as hell in the middle section. I was lost for a few scenes. It might have benefited from setting the characters in the beginning of the film instead of just parachute-dropping the viewer in the middle of the action. Otherwise, the confusion helps to create the sense of anxiety of being surrounded by traitors and spies. Zhang Yimou, the master at work!

8????????????????????????????????????

It's really confusing and that's both a blessing and a curse. It mimics what it would be like to be a spy (good), but as a viewer it lost me a couple times (bad). That's basically what kept this from being a 90. But visually this is still a Yimou very in tune. The colours aren't as extravagant as something like House of Flying Daggers BUT his usage of snow induced a very suspicious, fitting tone for a spy flick. Snow is awesome in movies, Zhang knew this.