Sadly, the inconsistent visual presentation and less than adequate supplemental materials make for a hard sell on spending the extra dollars for the Blu-Ray disc.
In a time when standard definition is still king, "House of Flying Daggers" on Blu-Ray does look good. The film takes place mostly in the great outdoors of China and the scenery is breathtaking. The colors are perfectly saturated and among the best you can see on home video. Black levels are solid. Detail is good about sixty percent of the time. It is during these times that the film looks like the next generation of technology. The other forty percent of the time, the disc looks marginally better than standard definition and on a player that does HD upconversion, it may look almost equal. The level of detail is just wildly inconsistent. I´m not sure if this a problem of the MPEG-2 compression and the limited space of the single layer or something else, but compared to what I´ve seen on HD-DVD, Blu-Ray needs a bit more work to fill its claim of being ´beyond high definition.´
Sound:
Though it may routinely disappoint in its visual splendor, "House of Flying Daggers" is one of the finest examples of sound design in years. The ´Echo Game´ scene and the fight in the bamboo forest are of reference quality. During the echo game, the drums pound of a deep and powerful bass that recreates the sound of a drum to near perfection. To hear a drum in person is to also feel that same drum. I can honestly never say that I´ve never before felt the drums like I did with the Blu-Ray disc. These booming drums are accompanied by the sharp notes of swords clashing that are as shrill and high-pitched as the bass is deep. The bamboo scene features a rustling of leaves that fills the listening space completely and presents a completely different sound of bass in the splitting of bamboo.
"House of Flying Daggers" features five soundtracks. The original mandarin (Chinese) language is available in a Dolby Digital 5.1 multichannel soundtrack and a 5.1 uncompressed PCM soundtrack. In addition to the mandarin 5.1 mix, there are English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks. English, French and Spanish subtitles are provided. Whereas the English and Mandarin 5.1 Dolby Digital mixes sound good, the uncompressed PCM soundtrack is in a word, awesome. The two scenes I mentioned previously are just two examples of great sounding moments in the film. There are many more equally impressive moments to behold. Blu-Ray has not been impressive visually, but thus far the PCM soundtracks are far superior to what DVD had to offer.
Extras:
HD-DVD has been porting over the best available supplements from the standard definition DVD release, minus a few filmographies and theatrical trailers. Blu-Ray on the other hand has been omitting most or all of the value added content from the previous releases. "House of Flying Daggers" manages to keep a small number of the supplements from the DVD, but original discs commentary track, making of featurette, music video and costumes gallery are all lost to the next generation format. What did survive the cut was the four minute long Creating the Visual Effects Featurette and a few Storyboard Comparisons. I do not know how much space the French and Spanish soundtracks took, but I think Blu-Ray would have been better served if they had used that space to port over a few more features. As it is now, Blu-Ray is a limited format and is not showing potential borrowers much inclination to step into this ´next generation´ of technology.
Closing Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed "House of Flying Daggers" and found it to be a captivating and beautiful picture. This was a film I had passed over, but now regret not having watched it earlier. The gorgeous shots of nature and vibrant and plentiful colors are as good as can be found in a film. Making its high definition debut on Blu-Ray, the film features a horribly uneven visual presentation. It borders on magnificent one moment and the next moment doesn´t differentiate itself from the older technology it strives to replace. The sound, on the other hand, is incredible. The uncompressed PCM soundtrack is lively and easily one of the best I have heard through my speakers. If I want to show off the aural capabilities of my home theater setup, this disc is one of the first ones I´ll reach for. Sadly, the inconsistent visual presentation and less than adequate supplemental materials make for a hard sell on spending the extra dollars for the Blu-Ray disc. I would rather have seen a second disc with the supplements contained on it than have them ignored almost completely.
Sound:
Though it may routinely disappoint in its visual splendor, "House of Flying Daggers" is one of the finest examples of sound design in years. The ´Echo Game´ scene and the fight in the bamboo forest are of reference quality. During the echo game, the drums pound of a deep and powerful bass that recreates the sound of a drum to near perfection. To hear a drum in person is to also feel that same drum. I can honestly never say that I´ve never before felt the drums like I did with the Blu-Ray disc. These booming drums are accompanied by the sharp notes of swords clashing that are as shrill and high-pitched as the bass is deep. The bamboo scene features a rustling of leaves that fills the listening space completely and presents a completely different sound of bass in the splitting of bamboo.
"House of Flying Daggers" features five soundtracks. The original mandarin (Chinese) language is available in a Dolby Digital 5.1 multichannel soundtrack and a 5.1 uncompressed PCM soundtrack. In addition to the mandarin 5.1 mix, there are English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks. English, French and Spanish subtitles are provided. Whereas the English and Mandarin 5.1 Dolby Digital mixes sound good, the uncompressed PCM soundtrack is in a word, awesome. The two scenes I mentioned previously are just two examples of great sounding moments in the film. There are many more equally impressive moments to behold. Blu-Ray has not been impressive visually, but thus far the PCM soundtracks are far superior to what DVD had to offer.
Extras:
HD-DVD has been porting over the best available supplements from the standard definition DVD release, minus a few filmographies and theatrical trailers. Blu-Ray on the other hand has been omitting most or all of the value added content from the previous releases. "House of Flying Daggers" manages to keep a small number of the supplements from the DVD, but original discs commentary track, making of featurette, music video and costumes gallery are all lost to the next generation format. What did survive the cut was the four minute long Creating the Visual Effects Featurette and a few Storyboard Comparisons. I do not know how much space the French and Spanish soundtracks took, but I think Blu-Ray would have been better served if they had used that space to port over a few more features. As it is now, Blu-Ray is a limited format and is not showing potential borrowers much inclination to step into this ´next generation´ of technology.
Closing Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed "House of Flying Daggers" and found it to be a captivating and beautiful picture. This was a film I had passed over, but now regret not having watched it earlier. The gorgeous shots of nature and vibrant and plentiful colors are as good as can be found in a film. Making its high definition debut on Blu-Ray, the film features a horribly uneven visual presentation. It borders on magnificent one moment and the next moment doesn´t differentiate itself from the older technology it strives to replace. The sound, on the other hand, is incredible. The uncompressed PCM soundtrack is lively and easily one of the best I have heard through my speakers. If I want to show off the aural capabilities of my home theater setup, this disc is one of the first ones I´ll reach for. Sadly, the inconsistent visual presentation and less than adequate supplemental materials make for a hard sell on spending the extra dollars for the Blu-Ray disc. I would rather have seen a second disc with the supplements contained on it than have them ignored almost completely.
![Partridge Family, The [TV Show]](/images/displaymedia.php?id=24903&sizew=70&cat=3)
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]18577[/release]