First of all, this movie made absolutely no sense at all! The aged teacher (Lee Kyung Young) is the only cast member with any common sense to his name...

Deok Gi (Lee Byung Hun), the traitor and Sul Rang (Jeon Do Yeon, the mother and the last of the surviving Three Swordmen, had absolutely no common sense at all; I wonder if Poong Chun (Bae Soo Bin, the first of the trio to die) was also lacking in common sense as well?

More on this later...

The music and cinematography were excellent; they went out of their way to make this a movie with great scenery on the level of Mural (2011) or The White-Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom (2014), sparing no expense on this part.

The acting was second to none: all three of the main cast did an excellent job in their portrayal of the above-mentioned roles and their interactions. You would even have thought, if they all lived in the same house, they could have been considered a family: a "dysfunctional" family, but a family nonetheless! Some criticized Sul Hee's (Kim Go Eun) acting ability in her swordplay, but since I have never seen her before in a swordfight movie, I cannot judge this.

The support cast also did their jobs well, although no one except the aged teacher tried to talk any sense into the main cast's heads. The support cast excellently allowed the main cast to fulfill their psychopathic roles in this movie.

The music was very good; it many a time foreshadowed changes in the coming scenes in the movie.

The problem is, I don't think anyone actually knew what Park Heung Sik was trying to do in this movie.

I usually don't read other people's reviews of a movie until I have done my own, but I have to admit I had to see what others thought about this movie...and I wasn't disappointed!

Was Park Heung Sik smoking "weed"/marijuana or high on acid when he wrote the screenplay of this movie?

Both of the older main cast members, even though they seemed to have done what the director wanted them to do, were complete PSYCHOPATHS in this movie...Deok Gi at least had a rationale for being a psychopath in his lust for power.

If I was a Psychology professor, I would have my students watch this movie to show what a 'psychopath' looks like, mixed with a little Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Passive-Aggressiveness thrown in!

Both Deok Gi, for his undying lust for power and Sul Rang, for her undying lust for revenge were total psychopaths from the death of Poong Chun until the end of the movie; Sul Hee (Kim Go Eun), the bastard daughter of the two, was psychotic in her relentless quest for revenge; however, if I read the movie right, Sul Rang raised her this way!

If she had any commonsense Sul Hee could have just traveled in the opposite direction of the Palace; and simply forgot about the vengeance her mother instilled in her.

Deok Gi could have worn his armor before fighting his daughter, and Sul Rang would have sooner or later returned to her tea house; Deok Gi even loved her so much at the end that he would have let her go eventually.

What makes so little sense than any other part of this movie is the LOVE that the two older main characters, the remaining couple of the initial trio, had to each other. Both admitted their love, but both anticipated their death as well.

Both ALLOWED Sul Hee to kill them.... self-preservation is the first and foremost characteristic of all members of the Animal Kingdom.

This movie isn't about common sense, though; and as much as I hated it, it would be a good re-watch in the future...

Does that make me a 'psychopath' as well? Or did it just hit a chord in my mind?

However, there are a few other psychopaths out there that liked the movie as well!

Park Heung Sik is going to have to make a follow-up movie about how Sul Hee was a recluse the remainder of her life, moving around China and mindlessly killing people who remind her of her parents, then asking for their forgiveness!

This is a 3/4ths of a box of Kleenex movie, by the way.

RE-WATCH VALUE: only if you are a psychopath as well!