House of Flying Daggers
#47 in my movie challenge, Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers has stunningly lovely visuals, intricately choreographed fight scenes, and a prohibitively slow pace. This film was another in the list of recent disappointments. We’d been waiting a long time in the electronic queue at the library, and I think the anticipation built over time. G. Grod was hoping that our friend Blogenheimer was wrong (no offense, B) and that it would be better than Yimou’s companion film, Hero. According to G. Grod, it is not, and he enjoyed neither of Yimou’s films more than he did Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Visually an achievement, but the pace was slow and the romance never felt genuine to me.
September 22nd, 2005 at 3:03 pm
Funny that you comment on the stunning visuals, since I think that’s what disappointed me second most about the film. Hero was beautiful to look at; I bet you could pull any frame of that film and it would be a work of photographic art. Daggers started out strong, but once they got to the woods, it all looked too much the same (the blizzard scene notwithstanding).
September 28th, 2005 at 11:11 am
I absolutely love this movie. I had the opportunity to see it in the theater, which made it all the more enjoyable. The sound, the visuals, the storyline - PERFECT. However, the ending was a bit over the top. When the main character (her name escapes me now . . .) came back to life (blizzard scene) - I was kind of feeling like - Die already! Ya know? No?
BTW - I found your site at the MN Blogs directory - City Pages
September 28th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
Angelique, I think this would have been an excellent movie to see in theaters because of its look. While both my husband and I tried, together and separately, to see it there, we missed it and had to wait for the DVD. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more in the theater. I didn’t mind the over the top ending, because I felt it meshed with the rest of the film, which was more about spectacle than realism.