House of Flying Daggers

Directed By: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau

Grade: B
Final Word: A visually spectacular instruction in the art of kung fu ass-kicking.

Okay, let’s get a few things out of the way really quick: Everyone in the Tang dynasty had superpowers, there is a lot of bamboo in China and Zhang Ziyi is so ridiculously hot that men will battle over the right to ravish her until the end of time. Got it? Once you cope with these three things, you’ll find that Zhang Yimou’s latest film, “House of Flying Daggers” is a fun ride that makes up for a slight lack of substance with its superior stylings.

The story is treading on pretty familiar ground. Due to the travesties of the Chinese Empire, a rebel sect called the House of Flying Daggers has risen up to fight and is slowly gaining support of the people. In hopes of uncovering their leaders, a detective (Kaneshiro) rescues a blind girl from her harem so she will lead him to information. Oh yeah, and there’s also ass-kicking, lots and lots of beautiful ass-kicking. Even in the pivotal scenes where characters are simply talking about who will be the next to ravish Ziyi, you know that ass-kicking is not too far away.

The story itself is probably “Daggers”‘s weakest point. The film simply fails to hit new ground by relying too much on clich‚. In the past, “Crouching Tiger” pretty much ran the gamut on love triangles, and “Hero” hit every angle of betrayal that you can possibly imagine. Yimou’s film is a mash-up of the two, but one that still comes off better than an arbitrary combination of Jay-Z and Linkin Park.

For all the story’s faults, though, the action is mind-boggling. Ziyi continues to cause an amount of destruction disproportionate to her size, and both Kaneshiro and Lau have set pieces devoted to how much they rule at the martial arts. In fact, it is these set pieces that give the film its heart and soul. From the trademark bamboo forest battle to a dramatic jailbreak to a nail-biting Mexican standoff in the middle of a snowstorm, Siu-Tung Ching has choreographed action sequences that are well worth the price of admission. Wire fighting is here, but it’s done tastefully and only when necessary (which is more than can be said for “Hero,” where every six seconds Jet Li was flying like Superman). All films of this type require some suspension of belief, but “Daggers” at least makes the job easy.

Yimou has proved himself a capable director many times, but here he almost outdoes himself. The environments are spectacular, the special effects are well placed and not over the top, and the cinematography continues to be some of the best outside of Hollywood. Although many may be too busy with the subtitles to get a lot of the acting, all of the players put in good, believable performances. Ziyi even spends most of the movie actually making you believe she is blind-without relying on Ray Charles-like sunglasses.

“House of Flying Daggers” is not the best film of the year. It may not even be the best foreign film of the year. But despite its lackadaisical story, the film has enough action to bring you in and reaffirm the fact that Hollywood knows very little about kicking ass.

Popularity: unranked [?]

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 21st, 2005 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Cadenza. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.