This will always be one of the moments when film suddenly became completely and utterly serious for me. And it wasn't even the first Zhang film I'd seen. It's his best, though. His best.

I still think its a confusing film constructed around great setpieces; I still don't care: It's so exciting and so much fun to watch.

Downright bleak. And I don't remember much else.

Gong Li should have been given a special Oscar for this. That it seemed to sit in the shadow of the ambitious, slightly better To Live is a crime: This one is one of the best told gangster stories of its time.

I feel no different this time than I did last time: Rourke's performance is still pretty great, Aronofsky's depiction of The Ram's relationships - not to mention all that Christ imagery - is undercooked, and the subject matter, in general, is mucho fascinating. I served myself and three friends some tea while we watched. (Yes, tea.) The pot had cracks in it and leaked all over the coffee table.