House of Flying Daggers
Went to see House of Flying Daggers yesterday. I wanted to just do a 2-minute mini-review, but as usual, this essay has grown uncontrollably, this time into a pseudo-dissertation on Hong Kong-style martial arts films in general.
House of Flying Daggers:
Cons:
1)The plot was overly convoluted and choppy, so that while it was not too complicated to follow, the frequent twists did not flow as smoothly as they could have.
2) The characters were opaque and overly melodramatic. They seemed unaffected by events that would stagger a normal person, and yet fell in love, lost control and/or went to pieces over cheesy tearjerky nonsense. In addition, the histories of all the characters are kept secret for the sake of the aforementioned plot twists. Because of this, it was difficult to get inside their heads and understand their personal conflicts and motivations.
3) None of the characters were particularly likeable. To a one, they were cold and self-serving, which made the emotional connections between them ring false.
4) For a movie with so much fighting, there is surprisingly little… violence. The fight scenes, while not comic, stretch the bounds of reality to the point where much of the tension is removed. Unlike Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where much of the plot revolves around the special training of Wudan mountain which gives the characters weightlessness and supernatural grace and speed, House of Flying Daggers seems to assume that all martial artists have these abilities, thus negating the sense of wonder that CTHD awakened in the viewer.
Pros:
1) Visually, this might well be the most beautiful movie I’ve ever seen. I can’t think of any time my visual cortex was so pleasantly stimulated. It was like ice cream for the eyes.
The two stars, Ziyi Zhang, Takesi Kaneshiro, are easily among the best looking people in show business. It is nearly impossible to take your eyes off them in any event, and when combined with the beautiful and elaborate costumes, makeup, and mind-blowing scenery, along with their natural grace and the aid of wire-work, their beauty seems to transcend mortal limits.
Director Yimou Zhang’s incredible sense of color is a constant delight. Continuing on the thematic color expressions of Hero, each scene has its own palette, which creates different emotional responses in the audience to complement the action in the scene. Ziyi Zhang bathing in the pool filled with lily pads, with the contrast between her cream skin and the lush green of the lilies, was breathtaking.
The martial arts, while not having the visceral violence of, say, Kill Bill, Brotherhood of the Wolf, or even the first Matrix movie, were inhumanly beautiful. The choreography was top notch, and use of scenery and improvised weaponry for effect was truly amazing. It was like watching a ballet… only not boring as fuck.
2) There is a tendency in martial arts movies to either take violence seriously, as in Kill Bill, Brotherhood, etc., or to make it comic, as in a Jackie Chan movie, or Iron Monkey. This movie, as with Hero and Crouching Tiger, creates a third option, which is to make the combat into poetry, each individual move a thing of beauty, like a line of a poem, combined into a cohesive whole. While serious violence will always be my favorite, I am also a big fan of this style. Comic martial arts can have success (Iron Monkey is a fabulous film), but it can go too far and lose my interest (i.e. Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow).
In short, HoFD may not be what you expect, but it is definitely a powerful movie that should be a must-see for any fan of the martial arts genre, and also may serve well as a portal for those with little or no interest/experience with the genre to taste it for the first time.
I assure you, the taste is sweet.
