Shi mian mai fu [House of Flying Daggers] (15 July 2004)
directed by Yimou Zhang
starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Ziyi Zhang, Dandan Song
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MPAA rating: Studio: Bejing New Picture Film Co., China Film Co., EDKO Film Ltd., Elite Group Enterprises, Zhang Yimou Studio Script: Feng Li, Bin Wang, Yimou Zhang Music: Shigeru Umebayashi Running time: 119 minutes Tags: Action; bamboo; China; Drama; Foreign Film; Martial Arts; murder; police; secret identies; swords Tactical strength: [6/10]
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for sequences of stylized martial arts violence, and some sexuality
Even if I weren't tired of watching martial artists dancing in the treetops, Yimou Zhang's House of Flying Daggers lacks the depth of story found in many of the recent Hong Kong martial arts epics such as Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and even his own Hero. Like its predecessors, House of Flying Daggers centers around a love story, in this case a love triangle.
Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), an undercover policeman, has an assignment to to infiltrate the Flying Daggers, a revolutionary group opposed to the current administration. The police get a report that a local blind dancing girl named Mei (Ziyi Zhang) might belong to the Flying Daggers, and Jin goes to investigate. The police arrest Mei on suspicion of treason, and Jin breaks her out of jail and leads her as they flee the police and the accompanying imperial soldiers that pursue them. On the journey, they fall in love, but we don't know exactly where Jin's loyalty lies. Will he remain loyal to the empire, or will he join the Flying Daggers to remain with his new love? The plot gets more complicated as we learn that Mei has a lover in the Flying Daggers. Will she stay loyal to her original lover, or will she change her loyalty because of her new, intense feelings for Jin. As with most love triangles, all three eventually meet and have a confrontation, and since we have a martial arts movie, the two rivals must have a sword battle to the death for the sake of their love.
Scene for scene, you get to watch some amazing cinematography. The elegance of the motion reminds you of a ballet and the sets remind you of an opera. Unfortunately, most of the action pieces duplicate elements of choreography found in other movies. The characters dance around on wires so much, that I'm about ready for another Jackie Chan movie, just because I know he really did all the stunts.
As Zhang demonstrated in Hero, he likes to use bold, screen-filling color. As Mei dances, Zhang covers the dancehall in pink and gold. As Jin and Mei race through the forest, we see a dismal brown color. Things brighten up a bit as the couple rides into a field of wildflowers. Later the soldiers pursue Jin and Mei through a vibrant green forest of bamboo, and finally the two men battle in a snowy field of white. In the DVD commentary, Zhang talks about how we have no control over love or its intensity. He proposes that Jin and Mei have such an intense love greater than most, even though their love only endured three days. It appears that the color palette mirrors the progress of Jin and Mei's love: pink titillation, brown mistrust, wildflowers loving, green dedicated love, white death of love. The changing color palette adds some interesting interpretations to the characterization, but it doesn't do enough to overcome the lack of story.
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