Okay, this review is gonna be pretty short, and not very similar to some of my other reviews. You see, I have a huge bone to pick. And it’s not with the movie, it’s with my local library. You see, near the end of this film, I found myself trying to figure out what to say for this review. It has good directing, acting, and cinematography, It has a lot of things going for it. But it’s just way, WAY too long. I mean, If they just cut out an hour or so, everything would have flowed much better. And then I looked at the DVD and realized I had bought the Director’s Cut.

And I remember it was the only copy of the film at my library. And I don’t know what scenes are added and what scenes aren’t. So in a nutshell, I was forced to sit through a 3 1/2 hour long film when I could have been sitting through a 2 1/2 hour long film. The things I do for this blog!

So, what is there to say. It looked gorgeous, like a fine painting. But the thing about paintings is you can only stare at them for so long before you get bored. I know that my number one problem with the film is fixed in the ‘real’ version, but at the same time, the fact that the director even saw fit to film a 3 1/2 hour version is an enigma in itself.

I will say that the scenes in the beginning when the emperor is really little can be pretty cute. However, when we get into the scenes where he’s going back to the village, I actually would have preferred it if they played up the comical side to this fish-out-of-water story. Anything to make it more interesting. Uh, I was originally going to give the film 3 1/2 stars, maybe just 3. But after I learned about the whole directors cut thing. I think I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.

****