I excused myself after forty torturous minutes. So far Duncan Shepherd has said it best for me:House of Flying Daggers
Martial-arts bodice-ripper about a blind showgirl (the jug-eared China doll, Zhang
Ziyi) who is neither blind nor a showgirl, but an agent of an underground movement
(and, evidently, a 9th-century forerunner of Zatoichi) opposed to the tottering Tang
Dynasty. Zhang Yimou's follow-up to his Hero dispenses essentially more of the
same -- more, that is, of the sameness -- more of the monotonousness. And the
addition of more and more and more ultimately equals less. What's done has been
done. To death. A lot of wonderful work went into the color, the fabrics, the sound
effects in the opening brothel episode, but once the initial impression has been made,
once the viewer can be presumed to be in the palm of the filmmaker's hand, there is
a falling-off in those departments. Always, the splendor of the settings -- the birch
forest, the bamboo grove, the flower meadow, the red and yellow tapestries of
autumn leaves, the climactic snowstorm -- overpowers the whimsicality of the action.
(The weapons for which the rebels are named are not just "flying" daggers; they're
"smart" daggers, changing direction in midflight like guided missiles.) To put it a
different way, the variety of the settings overpowers the repetitiveness of the
action. With Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. 2004.
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Topic - Watched House of Flying Daggers last night on a friend's big screen. Man did it suck! - clarkjohnsen 23:08:46 01/15/05 (14)
- nice visuals in the theater - tunenut 17:43:16 01/16/05 (0)
- I think that Asian Cheese is the de rigueur these days in the snooty Hollywood press.... - Chris Garrett 09:47:23 01/16/05 (4)
- It beats the hell out of watching baseball (nt) - Jack G 03:39:43 01/17/05 (2)
- I could see where the 'simpleton' mind would prefer the genre over baseball... - Chris Garrett 20:02:50 01/17/05 (1)
- LOL - Jack G 04:52:02 01/18/05 (0)
- Bingo on that one baby! nt - clarkjohnsen 11:59:25 01/16/05 (0)
- Re: Watched House of Flying Daggers last night on a friend's big screen. Man did it suck! - yo mama 05:39:03 01/16/05 (6)
- Clark, WTF is your problem? - yo mama 06:53:48 01/17/05 (0)
- Your feeble, puerile accusation has been dealt with below. Crawl back into your cramped nasty hole. nt - clarkjohnsen 18:05:59 01/16/05 (0)
- Just saw it big screen: Copywright 2003 - mr grits 09:06:53 01/16/05 (0)
- I had it for the last 3 weeks. Want to borrow it? nt - Duilawyer 08:47:14 01/16/05 (0)
- Re: Watched House of Flying Daggers last night on a friend's big screen. Man did it suck! - Jack G 08:38:51 01/16/05 (1)
- Typo-HK originally R3 - Jack G 09:06:56 01/16/05 (0)