Masterpiece in its genre

Director Ang Lee does nothing to hide his love for wuxia movies.

The photography is just splendid, although the movie may be starting to show its age, from a purely technical point of view.

The lead actors are, well, Michelle Yeoh, who is graced with both talent and beauty, and Chow Yun-Fat, who's earned every bit of his reputation, despite staring in some incredible stinkers.
The guy still looks smooth as silk with a shaved head and potato-bag robes. Impressive.
They need no praise beyond their own names.

As far as politics go, this is stupendously conservative by current standards.
All the actors in this Chinese period piece are, well, amazingly Chinese.
Characters are preoccupied with duty, to the point of personal tragedy.

Damn, they probably did not have modern audiences back in 2000.

The script itself may feel contrived to some extent. It is. It's wuxia. A certain naivete is inherent to the genre. Might not be for everybody, though. Not really for me either, but the movie is good enough that I overlooked its shortcomings.