Sacrifice (2010)
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 24
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 7
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 6
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 1,773
My Rating
Movie Info
A story of epic revenge, Sacrifice focuses on a power hungry general who wipes out his rival along with his entire family, save for one newborn. The infant is protected by the doctor who delivered him and raises him as his own, hoping to mold him into his own instrument of retribution. -- (C) Samuel Goldwyn
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Cast
-
-
Bingbing Fan
Zhuang Ji -
You Ge
Cheng Ying -
Xiaoming Huang
Han Jue -
Xueqi Wang
Tu'an Gu
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All Critics (24) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (7)
With its widescreen compositions and flame-illuminated interiors, "Sacrifice" is visually entrancing. Yet the movie is not just an exercise in style.
Top CriticIt is handsomely done and well-acted, but it lacks real energy or purpose.
Perhaps it's all that armor, or that even the estimable Mr. Wang seems exhausted by the film's dolorous themes, but it's tough to care about characters who spend most of their lives obsessing over the violent deaths of others.
Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine) cowrote and directed, and his talent for psychological drama isn't really suited to this sort of broad, mythic storytelling.
It charges out of the gate in Indiana Jones style, employing so many plot twists that you may need a scorecard. Then after an hour or so, it settles into an intimate, character-driven drama, before its low-key yet thought-provoking finale.
Now who exactly are those two guys slurping noodles? Are they both doctors? Why do they matter?
Both a thrilling swordplay epic as well as an intimate chamber drama about clashing filial loyalties.
The visuals from Chen and his crew are striking.
The master's touch is evident throughout a carefully calibrated drama that builds to a shocking tragedy.
Chinese film fans will be intrigued by a shift to more human, less spectacle-based storytelling.
Chen can't seem to decide whether he's making a fable or something more down-to-earth, but Sacrifice works either way, if not both at once.
There are some wonderful wuxia-style fight scenes spread throughout, and a last duel finally shifts all the plodding backstory into a visual spectacle.
A widowed father grooms his son to be a killer in a sweeping drama set in fifth-century B.C. China.
A historical melodrama that retains an ancient, elemental pull even as it insufficiently charts motivation and the self-denying values of antiquity.
Techs are terrific, from costume to cinematography, giving the film a lovely look.
Kaige Chen reaches back in time to tell another story of a child's relation to his father as well as his place in history. Featuring a grounding performance from You as the adoptive parent, "Sacrifice" is at once both epic and intimate.
Audience Reviews for Sacrifice
The Zhao family is massacred leaving only their leader's infant son to escape. The attackers hunt down every child in the city and threaten to murder them all if the child isn't returned to them. A man sacrifices his own child so that his wife can escape the village with his leader's child. As the son grows up, will he obtain revenge for the death of his family or be absorbed into the clan that killed his family?
"Remember this advice, don't trust anyone."
Kaige Chen, director of Farewell my Concubine, The Promise, The Emperor and the Assassin, Together, and Temptress Moon, delivers Sacrifice. The storyline for this picture is very intricate and well delivered. The characters are dynamic and epic in a lot of ways and the acting is fairly good. The cast includes BingBing Fan, Wenzhou Zhao, and Xueqi Wang.
"Exterminate his whole clan."
Sacrifice is a movie I came across while flicking through Netflix and had to see. I will say the overall premise and execution of this film is fairly good. This isn't as good as Hero or Warlord but it is well told and just a notch below Twilight Samurai. I recommend catching this movie once but wouldn't add it to my DVD collection.
"A man who would betray his own child scares me."
Grade: B
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Foreign Titles
- Sacrifice (Zhao shi gu er) (DE)
- Sacrifice (Zhao shi gu er) (UK)
