I do, however, have a problem with overtly hammy acting in a movie that isn't intended to be campy. Gong Li is the *only* one who escapes that criticism. At first I put it down to the interactions between particular characters, in case the exaggerated behavior was intended to highlight false words and hidden motives. Then I attributed it to court appearances and conventions. After 90 minutes, I'd given up trying to make excuses and wanted to slap some normality into several key characters, simply to ground the movie in a little reality. It's hard to empathize or feel any drama when the characters act so abnormally. For me, that was the movie's major flaw. (For example, I believe the idea was to show the king's gradual descent into madness; unfortunately he seemed pretty unbalanced from the word go, courtesy of some teeth-gratingly irritating overacting.)
Beyond that, the costumes and sets were nicely done. The battle scenes added little -- not nearly grand enough to match the (supposedly) epic scale of the story -- so it's good that the movie didn't invest too heavily there.
The cinematography was variable: a few scenes were nicely drawn but most left me fairly cold. There seemed to be no vibrant colors until the final segment, up to which point the entire palette was inexplicably dark and drab.
The overall directing felt mixed too: some parts were very well composed, shot and paced; other scenes felt more on a "made-for-TV" scale, with poor dialog, cheesy drama, and random waving of some rather wobbly swords.
