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Fost
Pod Team
Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 3734
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 Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 9:07 pm Post subject: House of Flying Daggers |
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Ok, it's pretty much impossible not to mention 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' when talking about this kind of film (Wuxia Epic? - I'm not 100% sure of the exact terminology  ) so I'll get that out of the way first: Since CTHD was a smash hit in the West, Chinese films have been slowly infiltrating Western cinema (Hurrah!). The excellent (albeit slow starting and occasionally lost) Shaolin Soccer was given a cinema release, and the Chinese epic period movie saw a comeback with Zhang Yimou's 'Hero'. For many, Hero surpassed CTHD in both visuals and story. Personally though, I was a little disappointed: Hero looked simply stunning, and there was some fairly good action, but I didn't think the fight choreography was nearly as accomplished as CTHD, and I kept feeling constantly that it was trying to be a little bit too 'visually poetic' all the time, and didn't have the heart that CTHD had. Despite that it had some truly great performances from Tony Leung Chiu Wai (This man is an acting GOD!) and Maggie Cheung.
So, roll on Zhang Yimou's latest: 'House of Flying Daggers', and this time, he's really pulled out all the stops.
The term 'Visually Stunning' is one I'm sure will be bandied about a lot in reviews of this movie. I won't even try to sully it's beauty by trying to describe it with words; I'll just say this: If this film does not win Best Cinematography at every film festival out there, then there's a few critics that need some flying daggers sending their way!
So, what's it all about: basically, it's 859AD and the Emperor's government is corrupt. A rebel army known as Robin Hood and His Merry Men... ...err, sorry, I mean 'The House of Flying Daggers' has formed in protest and steals from the rich to give to the poor.
Local government police captains Jin and Leo are ordered to capture the new leader of the house of flying daggers within ten days.
The only lead they have is that local dancer Mei (played by the great and gorgeous Zhang Ziyi) may be the blind daughter of the previous leader.
Zhang Ziyi as blind dancer Mei
Mei refuses to talk however, so the two captains decide on a new plan: Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro, who, according to my wife, is 'a very handsome chap indeed') will go under cover and 'rescue' Mei from the police, in the hope she will then lead him to the Flying Daggers.
Mei and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) on the run
Matters get complicated when the local general orders all soldiers in the area to attack the two to make it more believable, forcing Jin to kill people on his own side.
Along the way (predictably I suppose, but we wouldn't want any less  ), Jin's feelings for Mei grow very strong...
Soldiers corner Mei
So, is it any good? As I said before, it's probably worth seeing just for the cinematography, the music is very nice and some of the dance/fight choreography is fantastic. The important thing though is the story, and that, sadly, has problems. It starts very well, and it's very well acted - the two leads being especially enjoyable to watch together on screen, but part way through it falls apart. At this point, the director seems keen to draw out the time and make everything as beautiful as he can - if a character has a decision to make, it means they'll be sitting on a horse staring at leaves falling in a forest for a good fifteen minutes  It all looks great but feels like someone drawing out the result of a phone poll: and... ...the winner... is... ...drum roll for about 30 minutes... ...a man we all know and love... ...it's... GET ON WITH IT!!!!!!
Even the fight scenes towards the end drag a bit (one fight lasts so long the seasons change... )
Zhang Ziyi fighting in a bamboo forest, now where have I seen that before?
I know a lot of people who loved Hero, and I think those people will probably like this too - for me, I'm glad I watched it, but it just got a little bit full of itself at the end for my liking.
Scarecrows in ancient China were particularly effective...
If anyone's interested, there's more info and a trailer at the official site.
I watched the Edko Hong Kong release (extremely cheap even with delivery from HK!), which is a very nice release - not much on extras, but it has DTS and DD soundtracks, English subs of course, and a very nice anamorphic picture transfer. |
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James
Joined: 28 Nov 2002
Posts: 153
Location: Sheffield
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| Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I'm a sucker for pretty films, so I've just ordered this along with the 3 disk korean release of Hero (and Godzilla v Mechagodzilla, but we'll gloss over that).
Incidentally, although it's nothing at all like this film, have you ever seen In The Mood For Love? Quite a slow film, even at its relatively short running time, but it's beautifully shot and acted. I think you'd probably like it. |
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Fost
Pod Team
Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 3734
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| Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:19 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah - I'm working on a review of 2046 - which follows on the story of Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung) from 'In the Mood for Love'.
I'm actually a huge fan of Wong Kar Wai (I've seen most of his films come to think of it), although I often hesitate to talk about them because the only other person I know who likes them is you 
Have you seen Chungking Express and Fallen Angels yet? they are probably his coolest films (Worth seeing Fallen Angels for Michell Reis and even just because it looks beautiful - the photography books of these films sell pretty well on ebay - I have the Fallen Angels one.)
http://www.wongkarwai.net/ is a great place to get news of his films. rumour is his next film will have some Hollywood stars, although it is going to be part of 3 short films with the others directed by Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni (Don't know any of this guys films, but they could be interesting considering the company he's in here).
I'm hoping Kar Wai won't go the way of John Woo though!
I think you've seen this before James, but you can get Kar Wai's short bmw film from bmw films. Again - everyone I know thinks it sucks, but I love it. (click on 'season 1' and it's called 'the Follow', although 'Star' is probably the funniest one...) |
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James
Joined: 28 Nov 2002
Posts: 153
Location: Sheffield
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| Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 5:51 am Post subject: |
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Ah, right, I couldn't remember if I'd talked to you about it before.
I've not seen any of his other films as far as I know, but I've added 2046 to my order now so I'll hopefully get that in a week or so.
I'll have a watch of the BMW one at dinner. |
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Fost
Pod Team
Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 3734
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| Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 6:45 am Post subject: |
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| James wrote: | | I've not seen any of his other films as far as I know |
Chungking Express is the WKW film to watch. It apparently inspired Pulp Fiction's disparate story system (which is why you can't seem to buy a copy in the US without QT's ugly mug on it  )
The artificial eye UK release is supposed to be the best DVD of it ( review ) although they've chopped off a bit of the top and bottom - it's hard to judge WKW films, as they use loads of colour blooming, over/under exposure techniques - they aren't supposed to look technically perfect. I've got the old UK release - it had burnt in subtitles, and looks a bit ropey, but it doesn't really matter too much - the film was never meant to look 'clean'.
There's apparently going to be a new DVD edition of 'Happy Together', supervised by WKW himself (most copies of that suck). I really want to see that and Ashes of Time, but apparently all the DVDs are so bad they are almost unwatchable... |
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JGigantic
Joined: 26 Oct 2018
Posts: 1
Location: London
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| Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 4:50 pm Post subject: Re: House of Flying Daggers |
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| Fost wrote: | Ok, it's pretty much impossible not to mention 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' when talking about this kind of film (Wuxia Epic? - I'm not 100% sure of the exact terminology  ) so I'll get that out of the way first: Since CTHD was a smash hit in the West, Chinese films have been slowly infiltrating Western cinema (Hurrah!). The excellent (albeit slow starting and occasionally lost) Shaolin Soccer was given a cinema release, and the Chinese epic period movie saw a comeback with Zhang Yimou's 'Hero'. For many, Hero surpassed CTHD in both visuals and story. Personally though, I was a little disappointed: Hero looked simply stunning, and there was some fairly good action, but I didn't think the fight choreography was nearly as accomplished as CTHD, and I kept feeling constantly that it was trying to be a little bit too 'visually poetic' all the time, and didn't have the heart that CTHD had. Despite that it had some truly great performances from Tony Leung Chiu Wai (This man is an acting GOD!) and Maggie Cheung.
So, roll on Zhang Yimou's latest: 'House of Flying Daggers', and this time, he's really pulled out all the stops.
The term 'Visually Stunning' is one I'm sure will be bandied about a lot in reviews of this movie. I won't even try to sully it's beauty by trying to describe it with words; I'll just say this: If this film does not win Best Cinematography at every film festival out there, then there's a few critics that need some flying daggers sending their way!
So, what's it all about: basically, it's 859AD and the Emperor's government is corrupt. A rebel army known as Robin Hood and His Merry Men... ...err, sorry, I mean 'The House of Flying Daggers' has formed in protest and steals from the rich to give to the poor.
Local government police captains Jin and Leo are ordered to capture the new leader of the house of flying daggers within ten days.
The only lead they have is that local dancer Mei (played by the great and gorgeous Zhang Ziyi) may be the blind daughter of the previous leader.
Zhang Ziyi as blind dancer Mei
Mei refuses to talk however, so the two captains decide on a new plan: Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro, who, according to my wife, is 'a very handsome chap indeed') will go under cover and 'rescue' Mei from the police, in the hope she will then lead him to the Flying Daggers.
Mei and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) on the run
Matters get complicated when the local general orders all soldiers in the area to attack the two to make it more believable, forcing Jin to kill people on his own side.
Along the way (predictably I suppose, but we wouldn't want any less ), Jin's feelings for Mei grow very strong...
Soldiers corner Mei
So, is it any good? As I said before, it's probably worth seeing just for the cinematography, the music is very nice and some of the dance/fight choreography is fantastic. The important thing though is the story, and that, sadly, has problems. It starts very well, and it's very well acted - the two leads being especially enjoyable to watch together on screen, but part way through it falls apart. At this point, the director seems keen to draw out the time and make everything as beautiful as he can - if a character has a decision to make, it means they'll be sitting on a horse staring at leaves falling in a forest for a good fifteen minutes  It all looks great but feels like someone drawing out the result of a phone poll: and... ...the winner... is... ...drum roll for about 30 minutes... ...a man we all know and love... ...it's... GET ON WITH IT!!!!!!
Even the fight scenes towards the end drag a bit (one fight lasts so long the seasons change... )
Zhang Ziyi fighting in a bamboo forest, now where have I seen that before?
I know a lot of people who loved Hero, and I think those people will probably like this too - for me, I'm glad I watched it, but it just got a little bit full of itself at the end for my liking.
Scarecrows in ancient China were particularly effective...
If anyone's interested, there's more info and a trailer at the official site.
I watched the Edko Hong Kong release (extremely cheap even with delivery from HK!), which is a very nice release - not much on extras, but it has DTS and DD soundtracks, English subs of course, and a very nice anamorphic picture transfer. |
It seems to be an impressive Chinese movie. Well Is it available online? I am not exactly from China so I cannot place order for the DVD.
Thanks and please do let me know about the online link of this movie. |
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