I am not a fan of Ang Lee. I hate crouching tiger and I do not want to talk about hulk. I am a fan of shanghai. The setting appealed to me. There is war, there is electric tram, there is cheongsum, there is nothing more i can ask for. The film is based on a famous novel of Zhang Ai Ling, so not much credit for the plot should go to Lee.<br /><br />It was mature direction which stood out. It never look at my watch a single time while watching it. It shows experience and skill in how the story developed. I cannot think of any irrelevant or redundant scenes. Scenes like Yee Tai Tai meeting Mai Tai Tai and the six of them being executed were things we can picture and were cliché. Lee did away with these scenes.<br /><br />Casting was another strength of Lee. Tang Wei is a like a ghost of the past. She should be living in the forties. She is too natural and no matter in what attire, she is stylish and elegant. I can never forget the look of Tony Leung during the last sex scene. Those sex scenes were battles. It made me pondered who was the prey and who was the predator. In a nutshell, it was good acting.<br /><br />I gave it 8/10. One point missing for the lack of meaningful and powerful dialogues. Some lines could be improved on. The last point for emotions. It did move me a bit, but I thought with such a plot Lee can actually bring tears to my eyes. I believe there should be more character development on Mr Yee. There should be a scene of him interrogating one rebel in the middle of the film, rather than him describing it. After witnessing it, we can relate the manner of the interrogation to the sex scenes, which will make those scenes more powerful.<br /><br />I was surprised by the element of humour which was present in the film. Wrapping this up, it is something you should watch in the theater, not anywhere else.