It's a pleasure to see an imaginative film in which the brief words "yes" and "no" actually condition the dialog, suggesting that human beings, not plaster action-puppets, are the stakes. A Chinese geisha is anomalous, but many Western men share Maxwell's notion of what it means to have one, whatever it (or she) is, and the rest doesn't matter anyhow. Bold hero, he'll simply undress her for the enlargement of himself and the enlightenment of his society. He'll lop off Buddha's head only to (in order to?) discover that his zen is misguided. ("When the wrong man does the right thing, it's the right thing done the wrong way.") A wonderful carving down of misspent energy and noisy ultimatums. I wish Hollywood moguls had the stomach for it.