House of Flying Daggers

"I want 2 bananas, or else..."


Watched this movie in 2004 before I leave for Tasmania actually but just never got the chance to do the review so here it is. Since Zhang Yi Mou turned into a Hollywood junkie, most of his latest films are made for westerners who will praise for his work just because they never seen people flying in the air or walking on the water before and they called it an "art house" film. But most of the asians like me probably don't think much about it since we brought up by watching Hong Kong kung fu movies.

Alot of you probably thought Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was by Zhang Yimou just because it has the same style but instead was actually by Ang Lee. Hero was the only previous chinese martial art "art house" film by Zhang and the rest of his previous films are sad depressing dramas. But anyway Ang Lee did a good job in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as it was a fresh idea to break into US film industry. Then the HERO, just because americans think is cool to see people fly but the movie itself was a disaster. And now, whenever American see chinese fly they want to bring it back to US and hence the House of Flying Daggers will be showing soon in US which already released in Asia 6 months ago that's how I got the DVD at Shinseido in Chatswood.

Zhang Yimou has definitely did a better job in House of Flying Daggers compare to the previous one HERO. The storyline probably more or less the same as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon where martial art takes place in the whole movie but the focus point is the love story within. I quite enjoyed the martial art sequence in this one. Exagerration makes the whole movie more fun, the synchronise drumming sequence in the movie is beautifully executed, and I think it should be one of the Olympic event. And there is fighting scene turning spring time into winter blizzard, assassination through the bamboo forest. The whole movie is technicolor to the max. I am pretty much neutral towards the movie, I enjoyed it, but I won't called it brilliant just because I am immuned to chinese kung fu movie cuz I've seen better like "White Hair Demon Lady" by Tsui Hak. I prefer the story better than Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but less wanky like Hero. So I think is worth watching.


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Popcorn Level :

TOTAL : 7.0/10