I had read quite a few articles on the movie. This was THe most talked about Manderin speaking film in Asia last year. I found the US reviews to be a bit on the simplistic side-they felt it's too long, not enought patriotic motivation on the female lead part, and not enough romance and passion for them to get into it. The European reviews have been more favorable. I think the fact that Europe and China shared so much pain and sufferings in WW2, the critics could understand the grey area of the human heart, and how complicated human beings are, motives are so personal and often times not virtuous. The fact that the film isn't really about romance, and patriotism, it's about the really dark side of the heart, and personal vanity. Some of the US critics seemed to have a hard time finding the core of the story, or they were not satisfied with the theme of the movie, because it offered no simple answer and no easy way out.