House of Flying Daggers is certainly enjoyable and well worth seeing. It's a martial arts flick that can pass as a date movie -- now that's not bad...

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Yee: Do not pull this dagger out. I'm sending you back to keep spying for us. You will be more convincing with a dagger in your back.

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This is the second Yimou Zhang /Ziyi Zhang (presumably no relation) epic that I have reviewed today, so I am bound to compare Flying Daggers with Hero. Sadly, compared to the prior masterpiece, Flying Daggers is flawed. Since this story is as much of a romance as it is a martial arts movie, you may also be tempted to compare it to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Don't. It would not fare well.

The plot of HoFD is far from simple. A romantic hero Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) rescues a beautiful young blind rebel, Mei (Ziyi Zhang), from prison and is pursued by the local guard captain, Leo (Andy Lau). In the twisting labyrinth of a plot that follows, nothing is what it seems. Unfortunately, while brilliant and creative, the plot becomes so serpentine that the action slows down while the characters stop to explain it. I have to give the writers ten out of ten for effort, but no cigar.

The cinematography is simple but effective. I would probably have raved about it on any other day, but it pales in comparison to Hero. Then again, so does almost every other movie made this century. While Hero's soundtrack adds to the effect, HoFD's music is cheesy and overly melodramatic.

The dialogue in HoFD is uneven. At times it is incisive and striking. At other times it is pompous, long-winded, and unintentionally comic. It's not just the translation. Mainland China reviewers say that it is just as bad in Mandarin.

The acting too is uneven. Ziyi Zhang is as brilliant as always. As Mei, she is vibrant and full of life; her eyes totally mesmerize the camera. Unfortunately, Kaneshiro is less successful as the romantic lead. Sometimes he wildly overacts, making the least believable on-screen drunk that I have ever seen. Sometimes things mesh for him and he turns in a really good scene. Andy Lau's performance is more even. While he never has the awful scenes, he never has the brilliant ones either.

While HoFD certainly attempts to be a romance, it is no CTHD. Time and again, romantic intimations once rebuffed turn into attempts at rape. What is this, a football movie? I think that Yimou Zhang is trying to get a message across about a woman's self-determination. While this may be a brave and unusual message in China, does he have to be so unsubtle?

The best scene in the movie is the drum-dance sequence. This is as good a scene as in any in Hero. Ziyi Zhang's dancing may surprise many, but actually, she is trained as a dancer and not as a martial arts expert. While this scene is outstanding, it is right at the beginning of the movie, and the material that follows is somewhat anticlimactic. The fight sequences are too widely spaced, and when they occur they look more like ballet than actual combat. The flying daggers themselves are wire-guided missiles that boomerang around the screen in gay abandon. This effect is overused. While it is interesting and fun in the first sequence, later use produces little more than a yawn.

When the final fight sequence occurs, it attempts to be momentous, but it is so overproduced that it takes on a Monty Python comedic quality. (I'm not dead yet!) Unintentionally, there were more laughs than tears in the conclusion. The movie also ends leaving significant plot elements unresolved. It's as if Return of the Jedi ended as soon as Anakin Skywalker unites with Luke, and the starship and surface battles were left unfinished. This may be acceptable in Eastern culture, but it does not sell so well in the West.

While this movie is certainly enjoyable and well worth seeing, I can only give it 3.5 stars. If I was judging it against standard Hollywood fare, I would round up to four, but since I am comparing it with other Yimou Zhang films, I must round down to three stars. Look on the bright side. It's a martial arts flick that can pass as a date movie -- now that's not bad.

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The violence is bloodier and less "comic-book" than usual. Combine that with some sensual scenes and repeated attempts at rape, and you might want to keep this one away from the kiddies.

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The House of Flying Daggers (2004)
Shi mian mai fu

Directed by Yimou Zhang

Written by Feng Li, Bin Wang and Yimou Zhang

Cast:
Takeshi Kaneshiro ... Jin
Andy Lau ... Leo
Ziyi Zhang ... Mei

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Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age