House Of Flying Daggers
Year: 2004
Director: Yimou Zhang
IMDB

I am a huge fan of the Wuxia films, and I think Zhang does them best. He is an incredibly talented director, and really excels at beating you over the head with visual themes and composition. In this regard he is probably only surpassed by Hitchcock in my eyes. Apart from his Wuxia films, (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower) he has also done 2 other films which are simply incredible, Ju Dou, and Raise the Red Lantern. Go see them today, you won’t be disappointed. Raise the Red Lantern is one of the best movies I have ever seen, and it’s crazy to think that it was only his 4th film.

Now back to the subject at hand…

House of Flying Daggers is a good film. Again, everything you would expect from Zhang: Compelling composition, in your face visual themes, and fantastic choreography and action. Be warned, this is definitely less action oriented than some other Wuxia films like Hero or Kung Fu Hustle. Finally, there is the cinematography, it is incredible. The movie looks simply stunning, every minute of every scene.

The quality of the DVD is on par, mastered in high def and anamorphic (really the only way to watch these kind of movies). As far as special features, there is the pretty useless photo gallery and storyboard comparison. There is also a music video to the theme of the movie. Which just uses footage straight from the movie, and somehow makes it unbearable to watch. There is a short featurette which goes into some of the visual effects of the movie. I found this the most interesting of course, but I think people who know nothing of film will watch it and realize how far something like dramatic color correction goes in a movie. There is also a general making of featurette, pretty typical fare. Finally, there is the commentary track, by the director and lead actress. It is in Chinese, but subtitled. To be honest, I didn’t get through it all. I would say it is average, some interesting information but not very entertaining.

What are you waiting for, go buy this movie!

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