Because Yimou Zhang’s freaking awesome Hero arrived late in American theaters, we get his next film, House of Flying Daggers, in the same year. Daggers is very much a similar film to Hero, better is some ways, weaker in others.

Like Hero, Daggers finds a story that allows for some spectacular combat about every five minutes. This one tells us about a love triangle of deception and betrayal. The details are complicated, but suffice it to say that Mei (Ziyi Zhang) is running away from an army, led by Leo (Andy Lao), with the help of Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Mei and Jin run, kick some trash out of their pursuing attackers, kiss, run, kick some more trash, kiss some more, run, and so on.

What makes it exciting is, as in Hero, the cinematography which is so strong and so constant, than you could take any random frame from House of Flying Daggers and it would make it onto next year’s nature calendar. Instead of using single color palates, as in Hero, a seasonal approach follows Daggers through spring, summer, fall and winter. Then there are the fighting sequences, many of which surpass Hero and Crouching Tiger. Swords swoosh and silk swirls as daggers and bamboo rods fly through the air. The fighting is all over, including a sequence in high in the tree tops.

When the warriors are not gracefully cutting people’s heads off, the story is a full fledged Romeo and Juliet. Mei is a member of the House of Flying Daggers (which, by the way, means they can throw daggers at any distance and make them go wherever they want) and she already has a man. Mei and Jin can’t be together, so they must fight those who would stand in their way.

House of Flying Daggers is of mythic proportions with its symbolic colors, images and plot, all of which lead to the love story. The problem is, it’s never affecting as a love story. Daggers is so tied up in the big picture that the characters get no real attention and their love – as deep as the story is – is utterly superficial. We never see why the characters are falling in love, we never see that they really do, and so we never really care about the outcome. When the core of your story is the love triangle, that’s a problem.

Chinese

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