In Gone With the Bullets, director Jiang Wen defines film as follows: “Movies are a kind of art to be commonly appreciated by the world.” But ironically, many who saw Gone With the Bullets left theaters unsure of what the director intended to convey.
在《一步之遥》中，导演姜文对电影的定义是“全世界人都看得懂的艺术”。但讽刺的是，《一步之遥》却让很多观众观影后一头雾水，不明白导演到底想表达什么。

The storyline is straightforward. The movie is based on the true story of Yan Ruisheng, a middle class playboy who plotted the murder of a renowned prostitute in 1920s Shanghai. The narrative revolves around Ma Zouri (Jiang Wen) and his relationship with two women, beauty queen Wanyan Ying (Shu Qi) and Wu Liu (Zhou Yun), a filmmaker and warlord’s daughter.
这部电影故事情节并不复杂，改编自真实事件“阎瑞生案”。历史上，二十世纪二十年代，洋场恶少闫瑞生在上海密谋杀害了著名妓女（王莲英）。影片里，故事则围绕马走日（姜文 饰）和与其关系密切的两个女人——选美皇后完颜英（舒淇 饰）与（上海）大军阀之女、电影制作人武六（周韵 饰）展开。
The film unfolds in Jiang’s signature style, featuring elements of satire, fantasy and comedy. The first 30 minutes of the film are more like a musical, as we are shown highly decorated sets with garish lighting and scantily clad women dancing sexily.
影片的叙述方式仍是标准的姜氏风格，讽刺、奇幻、喜剧元素一样也不少。电影的前30分钟更像是一部音乐剧，在花哨炫目的灯光下、金碧辉煌的舞台上，一群衣着暴露的舞女跳着性感的舞蹈。
Ma holds a lavish beauty contest in which Wanyan is chosen by the audience as winner for the third time after a stirring speech.
在马走日举办的奢华选美比赛上，完颜英因为一段鼓舞人心的演讲第三次被观众们选为花国大选的冠军。
The turning point is Wanyan’s mysterious death. Ma, the only one at the crime scene, becomes the most likely suspect. The second half of the movie is all about Ma’s struggle to prove his innocence and Wu Liu, the heroine, trying to rescue her beloved man.
而完颜英的离奇死亡则成为电影的转折点。唯一身在犯罪现场的马走日成为头号嫌疑人。电影的后半部分自此展开，讲述了马走日如何试图证明自己的清白，以及倾心于他的女主武六如何想方设法拯救爱人的故事。
The movie defies what you would expect from a talented film auteur. Jiang’s last work, 2010’s Let the Bullets Fly, was highly regarded for keeping audiences on the edge of their seats and thinking about plot details long after the movie ended. Gone With the Bullets, however, fails to do that.
这部电影也许会辜负你对才子姜文的期待。他的上一部作品——《让子弹飞》——在2010年上映时，情节悬念丛生、口碑甚佳，更是引发了一轮观众们解密电影的高潮。但是，《一步之遥》却有些令人失望。
Like a child, Jiang puts everything he likes into the movie. During the 140-minute runtime we see newsreel footage, musicals, film noir, stage plays, operas, and not to mention elements from better films like The Godfather and Chicago.
在《一步之遥》里，姜文像个孩子一样，将各种自己喜爱的元素堆砌其中。140分钟的电影里，我们看到了新闻影片式的连续镜头、音乐剧、黑色电影、话剧、歌剧，甚至还有经典影片《教父》与《芝加哥》的身影。
In an interview with Mtime, the director said that the movie is a tribute to audiences with curiosity. But what most audiences want, probably, is a good story with emotional drama, not a pile of unnecessary baggag.
在接受时光网采访时，姜文曾说这部电影是对充满好奇心的观众们的致敬。但是，大多数观众所期望的，应该还是一个有感情戏的好故事，而不是不必要的元素的堆砌。