House Of Flying Daggers [Special Edition]

I agree with the review in saying that a lot of the films better qualities come from the visuals. The action sequences were great and it was visually very impressive. I just felt this film was somewhat lacking in a proper and engaging storyline. I understand that the film was a love story, but certain love scenes went on for much too long, and threw off the momentum of the film heavily.

Nowhere near the quality of it's other two american released wuxia counterparts: Hero and CTHD.

To Yunda Eddie Feng:

Since you have the honors of writing the reviews avalible for Kurosawa films on this site, do you plan on a review of the Criterion edition of "Kagemusha"?

lordfinesse,

it depends on whether or not criterion ever sends us a copy of "kagemusha". i do want to review it, though.

eddie

Eddie,

Thumbs up! Your review, as usual is great. But I wanted to bring out a point here. You have refered to HOFD by its original Chinese name. I really liked it because most people/reviewers miss out the originality of foreign films. Most reviewers like to mention the "actual crappy hollywood movie name" even if the translated name is not what is conveyed by its Holly englsh name. For example, there is a one Bolloywood movie named "Lagaan" which was nominated 2 years ago for best foreign film. For American audiences, it was called "Once upon a time in India". This is not the actual meaning of the name "Lagaan".

I just liked the fact you referred this movie by its original Chinese name.

--Ranjan8)
PS: Will you be seeing this movie for the 3rd time for a 9;)

Ranjan,

LOL.

Eddie

Eddie,
Atleast the rating is on the higher side.
--Ranjan
PS: rating better than that of POTC8)

If you could compare it to other asian cinema that has gained mainstream appeal like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero (both of which I enjoyed), how would it stack up?

Justin,

If you have "CTHD" and "Hero" in your collection, then you might as well buy "HOFD" so that you have the entire Zhang Ziyi Martial Arts oeuvre.

It is a lesser work than the other two because of a weaker story, but it's visual style is the strongest of the three.

Eddie

http://fenghiskhan.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/2005/10/i_also_have_a_f.html

http://fenghiskhan.blogs.friendster.com/photos/house_of_flying_daggers/index.html

i want to let everyone know that i'm changing my rating of the video from a "9" to "6". i don't know why the movie looked okay a few months ago, but in comparing this disc to another version of "HOFD" that i have, i have to say that the video of the R1 dvd is atrocious. i've updated my review to reflect this.

Eddie -

I saw this movie yesterday and I was little disappointed. I agree will all the problem areas mentioned in your review. Couple of problems I had with the movie.

First, I would say that twists and turns in this movie made it look like an espionage movie. Come on how many twists do we need.

Second, After you figure out whats going on the movie becomes too predictable. The journey in the end is not worth it. Like you said, the fights are tedious and boring after a while.

Third, I also felt the style overshadowed the depth of the characters. "Hero" was excellent because inspite of all style and action, the movie had substance. Here this movie leaves viewer little bit confused.

Last, I found the "House of dagger" concept bit out of place. The director should have given more background about HOFD. Just as in Hero, the director explains why the characters depicted in the movier were after the king, here he failed on many grounds.

Overall a 7 from me. Maybe next time I watch it I might rate it an 8.

--Ranjan

Ranjan,

Well, the director said that he wanted to make a love story, plain and simple. The problem for me is that I never believe love stories in which people fall in love in a matter of hours/days. Also, Kaneshiro and Zhang's characters barely know each other, which also lessens whatever impact that the director wanted. The love story between Broken Sword and Flying Snow in "Hero" was much better than any of the love stories in this movie.

(I also hated the insert shot of government soldiers walking towards the Flying Daggers Sect's hide-out. We never see the soldiers and the Flying Daggers peeps fight, so why bother?)

Still, the movie is among the prettiest movies ever made, and it should be seen for that reason alone.

Eddie