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House of Flying Daggers: Review

There's certainly enough beautiful scenery in Zhang Yimou's new martial arts flick; there's also plenty of talent in the star-studded ensemble cast (Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Song Dandan). It's perhaps the fact that these elements are so bright that so powerfully illuminates where the film fails; House of Flying Daggers lets the audience down in two key areas: in its believability and script.

In movies, action movies in particular, there is often a requirement for the plausible suspension of disbelief, and the more you ask of the audience in this area, the better your effects and "movie-reasoning" has to be. In Flying Daggers, even by the high standards of faith that martial arts films usually demand, the audience is repeatedly taken too far, too fast, and the results aren't pretty. During several crucial action scenes that required awe and rapt attention by the audience, the cinema fills with uncomfortable mumbling, as people turn to their partners to discuss just how silly the action on screen has just become. Even for the action scenes that "work" (two early scenes in particular) there is a reveal, later in the film, that turns what seemed amazing and a high point into something very pedestrian, and in one case downright creepy. Audiences, unless there is a big payoff in which they can share, do not appreciate being made fools of.

A great actor delivering a great line is one of the key thrills of cinema. Even in an otherwise mediocre film, a restive audience can be stilled by a powerful performance on screen. Those moments when a secret love is revealed, or a leader rallies troops for a battle, stay with us long after the lights go up. In House of Flying Daggers, however, the audience is rarely still. In scene after crucial scene, the screen filled to bursting with some of Asia's best acting talent, it's the dialogue that provokes the audience not to silence, but to harsh, mocking laughter. It is hard to see how there will be positive word of mouth to keep audiences going to see this movie on the big screen, judging by the reaction of the audiences observed by this reviewer. By allowing such terrible dialog into this summer's "big hit," director Zhang participates in a general lowering of standards, which doesn't bode well for the future of Chinese film and particularly its overseas reception.

In summary, House of Flying Daggers is exactly like a flying dagger: flashy and sexy-looking; but in the end unbelievable, wimpy, and incapable of landing a killing blow.