Film offsets bloody action with quiet intimacy

"Sacrifice," a riveting, unpredictable tale of revenge from Chinese master Chen Kaige, has a structure all its own: It charges out of the gate in Indiana Jones style, employing so many plot twists that you might 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.

Describing the setup (intricate as any you will see) in detail would be giving too much away. But suffice it to say that the film, set many centuries ago in the Yuan dynasty, begins as the ambitious General Tu’an unleashes a coup to gain power from the Zhao clan, even if it means massacring practically everyone in sight.

New father Cheng Ying, meanwhile, is helping to deliver the last surviving member of the clan, and the doctor quickly finds himself enmeshed in the chaos of the uprising. After suffering immensely at the general’s hands, the doctor sets up an intricate plot of his own to destroy Tu’an.

Ultimately, the film works because the doctor’s relationship with the general — and both of their relationships with the doctor’s young boy — is just as complicated as the action-packed coup.

Kaige gets strong performances from his two main actors, Ge You (as the doctor) and Wang Xueqi (as the general), though the young actors who play the boy at the center of the dispute don’t fare nearly as well (their roles are underwritten).

As you might expect from Kaige ("Farewell My Concubine"), the sets and the costumes are top-notch, and though the film is intimate, it has the epic feel of the earlier work that made the director famous.

Moreover, Kaige has a knack for making well-worn themes and situations seem fresh and original. The story may have taken place eons ago, but "Sacrifice" still seems like a modern tale.