Despite great efforts to develop the three central characters, the confusing early sequences mean it is hard to feel empathy for any of them.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
40
50
The New York Times by Andy Webster
Though rich in period detail, the movie grows tiresome with solemn, protracted soap-operatic encounters laden with glowering stares and tearful outbursts.
40
A visually arresting but vacuous, instantly forgettable period martial-arts romance.
70
Memories of the Sword stands apart from other action films because Park wisely imagines violence as an elemental clash of dispositions.