Last night I watched House of Flying Daggers (directed by Zhang Yimou, Hero, and staring Zhang Ziyi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). I was amazed at House of Flying Daggers. It was one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. I couldn't help but to think of Ridley Scott and Legend. But Legend is a western, fantasy movie with plastic sets trying for a different type of beauty (and non-beauty). House of Flying Daggers is beautiful but in a real way using nature as different sets, even mixing seasons.

HoFD is a fantasy movie and a love story. I first thought it was going to be a fairly simple plot and straight forward, but as the movie went on, these little plot twists kept coming up. The acting is pretty good. The action is stunning and artful, almost like dance routines with violence. Yes, some of it isn't believable, but this is a fantasy movie. And it is so beautiful, vivid, full of life. Even people's deaths seem full of life.

I can see how western audiences may not like HoFD. In many films like this, emotions often seem over played, but to me, emotions are just characters like everybody else. I really do enjoy this style of story telling. It makes me feel like I'm being told tradition and myth as well as a story.



  ¶ 8:03 PM