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Veteran
director Zhang Yimou ("Hero")
once again brings to the screen a tale
of war, love, and gravity-defying action
in old China. Set during the Tang Dynasty
(859 AD), "House of Flying Daggers"
follows three characters whose deception
and loyalty to one another and their
country seems to change as easily as
the film's elaborate scenery and costumes.
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"House..."
begins when a failing and corrupt government
tasks two deputies, Leo (Andy Lau, singer
and actor of well over 100 films) and
Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro, former pop-icon
of Taiwan and highly sought-after lead
actor) to track down the elusive House
of Flying Daggers, a resistance movement
with seemingly Robin Hood values. Jin
is enlisted to pursue the blind daughter
of the resistance's former leader, Mei
(Ziyi Zhang, "Hero", "Rush
Hour 2", "Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon"), under the guise
as a rogue, womanizing warrior who calls
himself "Wind". Most of the
story takes place outdoors, as Jin and
Mei traverse the Chinese countryside,
fighting and falling in love. The political
aspect quickly falls second to the love
story, but stays at the core just enough
to remind the audience that the two
companions are not meant to be together.
One can expect this straight plot-line
to eventually twist and turn in every
direction (in ways I cannot comment
on without spoiling).
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"Breathtaking",
while a hackneyed term thrown around
a lot in reviews, accurately describes
the cinematography throughout. If anything
else, viewers will walk away talking
about the film's use of color. Every
costume and backdrop is deliberate and
beautiful. "House..." will
take you from a dream-like bamboo forest
to a rolling meadow, and ends in a bright
snow fall (the last is an unplanned
weather accident, according to the director
Zhang Yimou, who ended up effectively
embracing the snow storm). It is of
no surprise that the production designer,
Hou Tingxiao, worked on "Farewell
My Concubine" (a film that I believe
would have received more acclaim had
it been made a few more years into this
new Western promotion of Chinese cinema).
Academy Award winning costume designer
Emi Wada and her team will probably
benefit the most when the next award
season kicks in, and one has to wonder
if the brilliantly choreographed dancing
scene in the beginning of the film will
generate the first Oscar for "Best
Computer-Enhanced Wardrobe in a Foreign
Film" (a long-shot, but you'll
have to see it to understand).
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There
are a few things one must accept when
watching this genre of film. You are
going to read translations that are,
at times, goofy and seem fit for "Xena:
Warrior Princess". Assume they
got it right in Mandarin and move on.
Secondly, while Newtonian laws will
be bent or outright ignored, accept
the fact that every Chinese action movie
from now on will stretch reality more
than the previous. While a computer
dagger with boomerang properties doesn't
seem much of a movie magic feat these
days, I can't imagine it was easy to
portray a band of warriors gracefully
leaping amongst the canopy of a bamboo
forest. I enjoyed the special effects
in "House..." more than I
did a few other films of this type.
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Ziyi
Zhang steals another movie. She is as
graceful as she is lovely (and gets
a chance to show off her first love,
dancing). Her character is complicated
and intriguing, and Zhang manages to
act well with few words. She is just
as at home standing pretty in a field
of flowers as she is throwing a dagger
into the face of an enemy.
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"House
of Flying Daggers" is one of those
movies that must be seen in a theater.
The fighting and the romance are second
to the set designs, costumes, and score.
Thanks to composer Shigeru Umebayashi,
the use of music delivers the appropriate
moods at all times, and I'm sure a few
music fans will be surprised to hear
seasoned-soprano Kathleen Battle sing
the end theme.
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If
you are a fan of modern wuxia film,
or any derivative of Chinese action
movies, go see "House...";
if you are not, go see this movie anyway.
It's vision is universal and will be
long-remembered as a significant contribution
to modern foreign cinema.
Photo
by Sony Pictures Classics
-K. Tanaka
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