 The climactic fight scene was filmed in the Ukraine. It snowed so  early (October) that it caught the filmmakers by surprise, as they  had already started filming. They decided to change the script and  the movie so that it would appear almost as if this epic battle  began during the fall and ended during winter. Yimou Zhang (qv)  was very happy with how it turned out because it set the perfect  tone and obviously highlighted the blood spilled on the snow.