With a story of a repenting assassin forced back into the fray of killers and former allies, there were many ways that this story could have went wrong. But all the way through, the story and characters stayed true themselves. Even while they surprised me as a viewer. In addition to the reveals keeping me engaged, I found each of the multiple fight sequences absolutely gripping (and well-choreographed). There was no room almost anywhere in this film to potentially multitask to.

The fact that the romance gets established pretty quickly in the film allows for the focus to stay on the action-filled plot as well. But, make no mistake, I still found myself feeling incredibly soft to our married leads. Their relatively mundane shows of affection, painted as normal and natural even in the face of danger, melted my heart on more than one occasion.

The antagonists were well-written as well. All of them had pretty well-founded motivations and were not over-the-top in their villainy. They felt like actual bodied antagonists, rather than comic-book, exaggerated, or for-the-sake-of-it villains.

At this rate, I might need to sit down and just watch all of Michelle Yeoh's wuxias.