Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon showed there's an audience for the sort of elegantly slick action dramas that Japan has specialised in for years.

This time all stops have been pulled out with a cast featuring Jet Li (The One, Kiss of the Dragon), Tony Leung (Chungking Express) and Maggie Cheung (Police Story).

Directed by Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern), you would have thought it was an oriental recipe for certain success.

But you'd be wrong.

What emerges is a visually stunning series of setpieces - more deft swordplay amongst billowing curtains than you can shake a nunchak at - but with little emotional narrative linking them into a cohesive whole.

The story follows assassin Nameless (Jet Li) and his triumphant arrival at the court of the king of Qin after taking out the ruler's mortal enemies - Broken Sword (Leung), Flying Snow (Cheung) and Sky (Donnie Yen).

However, what begins as a simple explanation of how he despatched them soon gives way to a dense tale of shifting allegiances, split loyalties and differing perceptions of the truth.

It's a world of dripping temples, infinite deserts and apparent zero gravity peopled by ordinary mortals and superhumans of both sexes.

There's a wealth of heroic warriors mutely pondering the vexing variables of existence...or maybe what's for tea. It's difficult to tell.

What is for sure is that strings have never been put to such good use since the golden age of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet.

However, since the triumph of Crouching Tiger the novelty of flying fighters has worn off and - despite the beauty of an autumnal forest as the backdrop to a fight to the death - it's all a little jaded.

Fans of the genre certainly won't be disappointed but for the viewer with a casual interest this hero's a bit of a zero.

Tim Evans