House Of Flying Daggers
Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Written by: Li Feng, Wang Bin, Zhang Yimou
Starring: Zhang Ziyi, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro

In less than a year, we’ve had 2 films by acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou reach Western shores. The first, “Hero”, was originally released in 2002 but suffered numerous setbacks and delays at the unsure hands of distributor Miramax. It wasn’t until Quentin Tarantino convinced them to release it with his name attached that they finally relented, and they were rewarded with praise from critics and a decent box office take, all things considered.

As a result, Yimou’s most recent film, “House Of Flying Daggers”, was also quickly imported to North American theatres in the hopes of following up on Hero’s success. However, without Tarantino “presenting” it, and without a recognizable star like Jet Li, House Of Flying Daggers has proven to be a much quieter release. And in truth, it is probably a weaker film, though still more than deserving of people’s attention.

Set in 859 AD, during a rebellion that eventually would topple the Tang Dynasty, House Of Flying Daggers is not another political statement or historical tale, but rather a love story. Two local captains are ordered to track down and capture the leader of an underground group of rebels known as the House of Flying Daggers. They arrest a blind dancer suspected of being the daughter of the Daggers’ former leader, and one of them poses as a rebel warrior, breaking her out of prison in the hopes of earning her trust. What he doesn’t expect, however, is to fall in love with her, complicating the situation and leaving him with a tough decision. Similar to Hero, HOFD has a number of sly plot twists along the way, but they are mostly predictable or hard to swallow. I don’t think there are many who would argue that the story alone can carry this movie.

What does carry the movie, however, is the visually rich way in which the story is told, combining creative martial arts choreography with beautiful cinematography to floor viewers and keep them watching to the end. Kung fu flicks are a dime a dozen, but if you ask me, there aren’t nearly enough movies like this in the world. Zhang Yimou may have an unhealthy obsession with slo-mo and melodrama, but you can’t say the man isn’t a gifted filmmaker.

Granted, many of his actors frequently make it an easy task to wow audiences like he does. Zhang Ziyi, best known for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is the centre of attention once again. She performs some amazing scenes in this movie, made even more impressive by the fact that she is portraying a blind character convincingly while doing them. One scene in particular isn’t even a duel or sparring match but rather an intriguing dance sequence where she is unfurling cloth from her dress sleeves to beat drums, retracing the richochet pattern of pebbles thrown by an officer. Called “The Echo Game”, it can only be described as a primitive precursor to Simon (a little more skill required for this version though). Watching this scene, it occurred to me that parts of Yimou’s films are more like “Cirque Du Soleil” or a piece of performance art than a standard martial arts flick — and there’s nothing wrong with that. This isn’t to say that there is no action in this film. The climactic snow-blown showdown is a brutal, bloody and teeth-clenching brawl that hits hard and fast. Yimou also uses computer graphics tastefully and artistically to enhance many of the fights in interesting ways.

The only problem with the movie’s style is that we’ve seen a lot of it before. Fights in trees, elegant wire work and themed colour co-ordination… it’s all still impressive but it’s not as fresh as it was in Hero. One area where House Of Flying Daggers is a step up from Hero, however, is the elaborate and gorgeously-designed costumes.

If you’re a fan of film or just art in general, you will appreciate House Of Flying Daggers for the visual masterpiece that it is. However, the perceived level of pretentiousness and somewhat cliched love story may be too much for some, not to mention the language barrier issue (God forbid people might actually have to read subtitles during a movie). But if you can get past these obstacles, Zhang Yimou’s unique vision is still ultimately refreshing and a damn pleasure to behold. — Sean