In this brooding, melancholic twist on the wuxia (which has been re-edited, rescored, and color-corrected since its initial theatrical release), Wong Kar Wai delivers swordplay from time to time, but in radical fragments that refuse the typical pleasures of martial arts violence and instead play as counterpoint to the film’s true focus: the characters and their tortured psyches. Yet, in typical Wong Kar Wai fashion, the characters and their stories are oblique and often confusing, leaving us with little to understand outside of the overriding emotions that drive the film. (DVD)