House of Flying Daggers
I’ve been putting off posting here for no other reason than . . . I just haven’t been posting. 
So, I decided I would post a review, even though I posted a short one in my my other blog last night.
House of Flying Daggers is a movie that works to please the people whose emotions are closely tied to particularly enticing visuals. The colors, like other movies by this director, feature prominently in the story to divide certain elements as if they were actors, themselves. If you’ve ever seen Hero, with Jet Li, you’d know exactly how important the colors are to the story.
The actors, of course, are attractive, and their movements are nothing short of majestic, whether dancing or fighting. I’ve always loved that Chinese martial arts movies can use cables so discreetly, yet so obviously. CGI plays a part nowadays, but there’s so much more choreography that the actors have to perform, which seems to make their style of action slightly superior to American styles, which tend to insert a computerized double to do what the actor cannot.
I don’t know, call me a style snob, but I prefer as little CGI as possible if the actors have skills. With what they’re getting paid, they should be able to do more with themselves!
The story was also beautiful, even in tragedy. I’m not going to ruin the ending, but it was heartwrenching.
Now, if you haven’t seen many Chinese films, you might not find it all that interesting. It takes a little further understanding in the way they tell their stories to get through some of the more obscure references and seemingly odd reactions of the characters to certain situations (and the somewhat cheesier special effects, like fighting at the tops of bamboo trees). But there are enough obvious, universally-human aspects to this film to make it more understandable by the average artsy-action/-romance lover.
I recommend it. I loved it. But take this recommendation with a grain of salt — I tend to love almost any martial arts movie I’ve seen, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, which are the more obscure, mystical ones. As always, YMMV. 
March 8th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
We liked House of Flying Daggers as well, but the ending was so sad I doubt we’re going to watch it again.
Very, very pretty film, though.
March 9th, 2006 at 6:15 am
I admit that I fell asleep about halfway through and relied on my roommate in my decision not to rewatch it, but you make it sound interesting, so maybe I’ll have to try again…
Sig