I’d heard a lot of good things about director Zhang Yimou’s work, particularly Hero (with Jet Li) and House of Flying Daggers. Enough so that I decided to try and see one, but the choice became easy when I found House of Flying Daggers easily enough for free on Tubi and the only way to see Hero was to subscribe to Cinemax.
I’m not subscribing to anything for just one movie. Let’s just say it was an easy choice to make.
The story, set in ninth century China, tells us that as one Imperial House was in the process of falling, corruption ran rampant. Enter the House f Flying Daggers, a Robin Hood and his Merry Men-style organization that robbed from the rich, gave to the poor, and upheld justice. That doesn’t sit well with the police who do everything they can to bring the House down (so to speak). And all that is spelled out in an opening crawl, so we haven’t even gotten to the plot yet.
We’re told the House lost a leader, but a new one rose to take its place. Two local police captains, Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau) have only ten days to find and arrest or eliminate the House’s new leader, and the only lead they have is a new dancer at a local pleasure house may be a member of the House with ties to the new leader. The two men, both friends, hatch a plot. Jin will pose as a drunken patron and cause trouble, drawing the girl out. Then Leo will show up to arrest both of them. From there, Jin will break the girl out of prison and follow her back to the House of Flying Daggers with a police force and fulfill their mandate.
That sounds simple enough, but then something happens. The dancer is a blind girl named Mei (Zhang Ziyi), and she and Jin fall in love on their way back to the House. Plus, there are some more complications involving Leo, the local military, and what the House of Flying Daggers may or may not want out of the situation. And spliced inbetween all this are some truly impressive martial arts displays.
And that, more than anything else, is what House of Flying Daggers is all about. Between the incredibly lush colors and daggers flying in ways they are not meant to fly, is a love story between two people on opposing sides in a conflict between a corrupt government and an outlaw group upholding its own brand of justice. Whether or not the House of Flying Daggers actually wins in the end is immaterial. The movie ultimately isn’t concerned about that, and the only reason it’s there is to provide a reason for Mei and Jin to fall for each other at the worst possible time for either of them.
I mean, this is an outright beautiful film, and even if the martial arts moves look impossible, it’s difficult to care when it looks that damn good. I am really going to have to track Hero down at some point even if I don’t want to subscribe to Cinemax to see it.
Grade: A
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