Booooooo. Grrrrrrrr. Zhang, pretty please get the hell out of martial arts flicks before you start to colour my love for your past great masterpieces.

C+

Pfficial review to come tomorrow. but i must say, visually it was better than the car commercial that was Hero, and it didn't completely offend me as the underlying theme of Hero did, but seriously, i was very bored and the scenes were nit tied together in any broader context that would keep me watching.

Oh well, dolce, I guess we just have to be different here. You must be looking for something deeper that I wasn't. It's a great ride for me and probably the best martial arts film since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

First, the opening act. Wow, I love Ziyi even more after that dance performance. It is so beautifully staged that it feels like a musical. It actually has a complete number in it.

Then, all the fights are great, especially the one in the bamboo forest and the one in the snow at the end, although I do have problem with the ending that I'll mention later on. It's just beautiful and epic. To take a word from Nathenial at thefilmexperience.net, you wonder how some of the Hollywood productions could spend $100M and don't look half as expensive and breathtaking as this one. The fights are also more realistic, which makes me more appreciative about the choreography.

And the acting. I believe Ziyi gave the best performance of her career, playing a blind girl while doing all the fightings effortlessly. Now I have high hope for Memoir of the Geisha. Takeshi Kaneshiro also did great in this movie, although I do find Andy Lau's performance somewhat bland.

The plot is also quite good. The multiple twists took me by surprise since I didn't expect them. The love triangle was set up very well, and the personal sacrifice for love resonates with me much better than the kind of sacrifice Hero was trying to preach. It also contains good amount of humor.

Now for the bad part. The dialog is still cheesy at times. Chinese people don't talk like that in real life. And the last 20 minutes became so melodramatic that I wanted to shake Yimou to get him out of it. To me, CTHD was elevated because it had a perfect ending, but with HOFD, I think Yimou was so desparate to want to do the fight in the snow that he dragged some more than he needed. It could've left the audience in their emotional high, but it didn't.

Overall, a great experience for me. See it on the big screen. A-.

It was better than Hero, I thought some of the fight scenes were much stronger and less cliche. Creative opening with Ziyi's damnce/drum number. It just that when they start running away it just one scene after another of soldiers then some shots of them riding through the woods, and then more soldiers, and then shots of them running through the woods, etc. By the time the scene with everyone in the trees came around, I was just a bit impatient. Nothing was really tieing all the scenes together. and the final fight could have used a bit tigheter editing.

I ranked it two steppe grades higher than Hero, i do think it was a better movie, so anyone that liked Hero will like this one, hopefully a little more, and fans of CTHD could check this out as well. If you really disliked Hero, you're not going to find much more here. My grade is coming from the angle of someone who didn't like this turn, and who in general having seen a good dozen martial arts films is just not that into them for them being "fight" movies. I only liked the ones that had a good story too, and I still hold all my standards to that. Not even conciously, but I just get bored when there's a weak plot.

Interesting. From most, I heard that Flying Daggers was much better than Hero. If it is, it should still be good.

Good reviews you 2, I shall be seeing this on Sunday. (Hopefully)

I never thought much of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but I shall see this one when it comes out here.

I'm seeing this tonight so I'll let ya know how much I liked it. (Or loathed it, who knows)

While the film isn't as... epic as Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it's still quite as good. Zhang Ziyi gives her best performance yet, I'm really surprised because this is a very difficult role to handle. While she wasn't blind (Mei wasn't blind either... ), she sure did handle it with grace. I also thought Takeshi Kaneshiro was pretty good. I was really engaged in the story and the action scenes were quite good. I'm also glad I went into the theatre with a low expectation, I don't know how I would have reacted to the film with a very high expectation. While many say the dialogue was cheesy, I don't think it was really sappy... I thought the movie handled it's emotional situations pretty well. I didn't love it as much as Hero or CTHD, but it's pretty darn close. - A

A-. Great movie. Way better than Hero, not as good as CTHD.

Breathtakingly gorgeous.

...and the movie wasn't half bad either :wink: .

A

Great to see the support for the movie.

I completely agree with you. Especially about Ziyi. :razz:

A- for me too, btw.

I haven't seen Hero so I can't say if this was better, but what I can say is that I loved this one MUCH more than the overrated CTHD.

I'm REALLY surprised how much I liked this movie. I expected a two hour bore.

*bump*

I'll be watching this tonight.

Yeah, uh, a very dissapointing movie. Some beautiful scenes, but the movie itself was very boring. C+

Basically, read dolce's review (http://www.worldofkj.com/Galia-HouseFlyingDaggers.php) and you've got my review as well.

I told ya!!

I basically agree, but give it a slightly higher rating because of the very well-made first 30 minutes of the film. I'll copy my review from another thread:


B-


Well, I finally saw House of Flying Daggers and I unfortunately have to admit tht I wasn't very impressed. As I have expected the visuals of Hero weren't exceeded, even though I have to admit that Zhang Ziyi's "dancing" scenes in the beginning of the movie as well as her following fight with Andy Lau were breathtaking and by far the best scenes in the entire film.

The cinematography was good, as expected and so were all technical aspects of the movie, but rarely have they reached the level of perfection that Hero has achieved in my opinion. The acting was average with merely Zhang Ziyi being a highlight. She truly delivers her career-best in this film. I was surprised by how mediocre Andy Lau was in this movie, especially since I really liked him in Infernal Affairs. The screenplay was more developed than Hero's, but not in the right way, as I thought. The whole menage à trois angle of the film came very unexpected and initially it is a good idea, but wasn't worked-out well enough. Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro lack chemistry and that is fatal in such a film.

What has annoyed me the most was the fact that the big battle between the Flying Daggers and the General's army was hinted and one'd expect a big showdown or at least to get to know how it all turned out, but there is nada. We are left in the dark. I think, focusing a bit more on that part of the story, couldn't have hurt.

Overall, it is a decent film with many flaws which all lie in the screenplay/direction department. The technical aspects are, as expected, almost flawless, even though nothing I haven't seen before in CTHD or Hero. The movie deserved an Oscar nomination for Best Costumes and Best Art Direction and it's a shame that it didn't get these.

I agree for the most part, Lecter.

House of Flying Daggers had some great visuals, but it's nothing new. Hero was better in the visual department.

House of Flying Daggers is everything Hero wanted to be, and more. First of all, the story is better, and much better drawn out. I wasn't at all confused by what was going on unlike in Hero. The performances were amazing, especially from Ziyi Zhang. She's such a talented actress, and she pulls off the blind woman well. The visuals are stunning, and much more imaginary than Hero. Compared to this Hero is a bland mess. I just feel in love with this film, from beginning to end it was an incredible journey. It's beautiful, tragic, and especially eye poppingly gorgeous. I didn't find it to be boring at all. My sister and I got very lazy, and decided to try the English dubbed version, but it was horrific! We then decided to just read the words, and it was much more rewarding. The English dubbed version was much too distracting. Anyway, I thought this film was amazing, and definitely up there with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

A

My Review

7.7/10 or a B+
"A Visually spectacular, emotionally attaching love story but overlong and lacking focus ."

B+

I love these types of movies. The only problem I had was there wasn't quite enough fighting, or maybe I should say a big fight other than the finale. The finale being one of my favorite movie endings ever, btw. But not having the...action? that Crouching Tiger or Hero had is what sets it apart, so it's a rather minor problem. Everything else is great.

I barely remember this. It disappointed me, but I was comforted in that it was at least better than that goddamn Hero.

Incredible asthetics, no one can top Asians in that regard. Everything from the cinematography to the action sequences are breathtaking. The story is decent but wears a bit thin, and the ending to to the point of so-bad-it's-good with Ziyi's character constantly getting knived and then standing up again to give a profound look to her lover, then knived again and etc. Still a good film.

B+