[Sitges FF] Zhang Yimou's incursion into espionage cinema that is flawless from the visual point of view, the most lithic look of current cinema. But in the narrative aspect, it fades into a confusing and unbalanced story. References to the spaghetti western are transformed into a wild and snowy landscape. And that holds a political gaze that fades into an action movie with obvious pacing problems.

Fascinating espionage movie about a group of spies who risked their lives to inform the world about what the Japanese empire was doing during the second sino-Japanese war. Which where in Pingfang district of Harbin where the movie and such events took place around 1937 – 1945 in the second World War. Delivering a slow phase experience, but still inviting narrative trough the lenses of these spies and their struggles to be undetected and reveal what the Japanese forces have done, which was what the unit 731 who where the responsible for all those killing to Chinese soldiers and citizens. As a movie itself it did deliver an undeniable enriched attention to detailed as how they traversed to finish such mission with beautiful scenarios to complement this long process of survival entangled with a soothing soundtrack to exhibit an experience that did got me focused the whole two hours.