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The Banquet

Play trailer Poster for The Banquet 2006 2h 9m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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42% Tomatometer 12 Reviews 60% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
A Chinese empress (Ziyi Zhang) hatches plans of her own when her murderous husband (Ge You) banishes her stepbrother (Daniel Wu), whom she desires.
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The Banquet

Critics Reviews

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Wally Hammond Time Out 04/11/2008
4/6
This dazzlingly designed, mega-budget, period costumer offers further proof of Feng's increasing versatility, expansive vision and bravura technique. Go to Full Review
Kirk Honeycutt The Hollywood Reporter 09/13/2006
...mesmerizing but often empty... Go to Full Review
Derek Elley Variety 09/04/2006
Visually opulent but stately and stygian. Go to Full Review
Ard Vijn ScreenAnarchy 01/24/2020
I will grudgingly forgive bad logic or holes in a screenplay if there are enough pretty pictures to offset this, so for me "The Banquet" delivers in spades. Go to Full Review
Saxon Bullock Film4 04/11/2008
2/5
A production that's both amazing to look at and hard to enjoy, The Banquet contains plenty of visual pleasures, but ties its gloomy story in too many knots to be truly entertaining. Go to Full Review
Rob Daniel Sky Cinema 04/11/2008
Equivalent to attending a massive feast only to discover the main course is missing, The Banquet is frequently stunning, beautifully shot, but ultimately undernourishing. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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06/08/2020 Empty plot, excessive runtime, boring boring movie. See more 10/29/2019 Yes it can! It can compete with iconic flics like Hero or House of the flying Daggers, or even Tiger and Dragon. There s no eastern flic that comes more poetic than this one. The director successfully made it to combine shakespeare with martial arts! To be more specific, it s a Hamlet adaption. Everything in that movie is so full of oppulence and poetry. Even the wire fu martial arts. But beware, it s a Shakespeare adaption in the first place and only in second place a martial arts movie. Last but not least, the score by Tan Dun is outstanding. I can recommend it to all eastern fans, who at the same time like Shakespeare See more bill t @Spuzz 09/05/2016 Dollar then a stack of hammers, this overlong over pretentious movie is totally confusing totally pretentious, and in love with its own slow mo photography. See more 01/26/2015 This film is beautifully shot with gorgeous costumes, good performances and some interesting martial arts choreography. Sadly the film suffers from a underwritten script executed with confusing tones taking away from the sumptuous cinematography. It just makes you angry about how great this film could have been. See more camille l 01/27/2014 Clairement, Feng Xiaogang est un esthete de l'image. Tous les plans sont des tableaux dans lesquels le realisateur se montre beaucoup moins a l'aise pour faire evoluer une histoire qui traine en longueur a cause d'une gestion catastrophique du rythme. Si Zhang Ziyi et Huang Xiaoming sont excellents, Daniel Wu est toujours aussi fade. Le score de Tan Dun est absolument inadaptee. See more 11/09/2013 A silly melodrama with gorgeous imagery and stylishly choreographed fight scenes. See more Read all reviews
The Banquet

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis A Chinese empress (Ziyi Zhang) hatches plans of her own when her murderous husband (Ge You) banishes her stepbrother (Daniel Wu), whom she desires.
Director
Feng Xiao-Gang
Producer
Zhongjun Wang, John Chong
Screenwriter
Sheng Heyu, Qiu Gangjian
Production Co
Media Asia Films Ltd. [hk], Huayi Brothers Media
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Chinese
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 28, 2021
Runtime
2h 9m
Sound Mix
Dolby Digital
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