House of Flying Daggers Reviews

Crouching Tiger has better fights, Hero is beautifully colourful but neither have the emotional impact of Flying Daggers which also is as visually stunning as Hero. Ziyi Zhang is exceptional.

Since I really loved 'Hero', I was really eager to check this other effort by by Zhang Yimou. As a matter of fact, he conceived this story in the late 1990s as a companion to Hero. Indeed, it was rather similar in style to his previous picture but it was still very interesting and enjoyable. Personally, I have a huge weak spot for those spectacular Asian movies which feature some awesome impressive action scenes, some gorgeous set pieces and some convoluted and doomed romantic relationships. This time, Zhang Yimou works again with Ziyi Zhang but in this movie, she has a major part and she is assisted by Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau and they all gave some solid performances. Once again, the whole thing just looked gorgeous and even though, I prefered "Hero" storywise, it was still a very entertaining tale. To conclude, I really liked this flick and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Growing up, it always frustrated me whenever the majority of big budget action flicks or martial arts movies of the time often seemed to sacrifice on story to make room for the expansive bangs & the expensive effects. It was generally said, that in these types of movies, you couldn't really have both, particularly, at a consistent high level. And I was one those kids who always asked "Why not?"
And then came the House Of Flying Daggers. And with it's beautiful story of love & intrigue, combined with lavish costumes, solid performances & unique individually themed action sequences, this film of the burgeoning genre known as wuxia, seemed to asked that very same question.
An action flick that not only raises the adreline, but also leaves the senses enriched.

The love and war premise that feels like every other recent martial arts film is well apparent in the House of Flying Daggers. The action was elegant and graceful, but unfortunately the story could not provide enough support for all its beauty.