A Chinese Odyssey 2002

Slick, entertaining and funny, this is Shakespeare meets Cinderella and Roman Holiday, set during the Ming Dynasty. It's all here: sneaking out of the the Forbidden City to mix with the locals; identity changes and gender confusions; plot contortions, clever puns and a great punchline. It also pastiches a huangmei (tea-picking) musical, spoofs Crouching Tiger, and and cops producer Wong Kar-Wai's hallmark freeze-frames and voice-overs, while making directt nods to Ashes of Time and Chungking Express - especially with Tony Leung and Faye Wong together again.