|
Zhang
Yimou’s latest movie is jumping straight in from the majestic
visual triumph of Hero, but can House of Flying Daggers maintain
the massive critical acclaim that the director has received lately?
The film’s storyline is fairly basic and centres around
the Tang Dynasty and a rogue group of assassins that oppose the
government - they call themselves the Flying Daggers. The local
law enforcers (Lau and Kaneshiro) however uncover a blind girl
(Zhang) at a local brothel that is in fact the daughter of the
now deceased flying daggers leader. One of the two sheriffs (Kaneshiro)
goes undercover and befriends her, offering to take her back to
the Flying Daggers. But the two fall for each other, and when
everything starts to change the relationship comes in jeopardy
from all sides.
This film felt overdone; there were far too many set pieces and
not quite enough storyline to string it all together. Zhang Yimou’s
astounding visual style really shines throughout the movie but
it out shines everything else, making the film feel more like
a collection of sequences based on visuals rather than a free
flowing narrative. Adding to this the major overuse of digital
visual effects makes the suspension of disbelief factor very hard
to accept. Even in Hero Yimou manages to keep you believing in
the fantastical fights and characters, but House of Flying Daggers
is so out there that it creates a barrier between the viewer and
their empathy with the characters. However, the film is not by
any means all bad, the visuals are breathtaking in places and
truly take you into a time of real innocence and beauty, which
reflects the characters. The acting, particularly from Andy Lau,
was addictive and the twists in the movie, mostly created by the
characters, are a testament to the ability of this carefully drawn
together cast. It’s also worth talking about the fight sequences,
which are fast paced, powerful and elegantly choreographed. They
were on occasion a little questionable due to some iffy wirework,
but this thankfully remained minimal and was normally in amongst
the background characters.
The film overall felt very uneven and although it had some amazing
components in the form of actors like Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro,
cinematography by Zhao Xiaoding and action directing by Tony Ching
Siu Tung it felt like Zhang Yimou had trouble wrangling it all
together into a clean and balanced narrative.
- Dr.
Octopene
Extras
- Audio commentary
from director Zhang Yimou
|
