This movie has some interesting characters in it--especially the Northern Yan slave who I don't believe was ever given a name but who was interesting to watch, and Dong Yilong. It also had some fun actions scenes and a lot of cool ideas in it (the secret of Dong Yilong's birth, Grant Tutor Guan's scheming, the various revenge plots, etc).

What I didn't like was that these various ideas didn't tie together very coherently, and some of them weren't given much of a satisfying resolution. Additionally, the level of violence was higher than I expected, and both major female characters ended up dying while both major male characters survived, which pissed me off.

Overall, it wasn't a bad way to pass a few hours, but I don't think I'd recommend it either.