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Movie Review
Shi Mian Mai Fu
By Lee Tistaert Published October 24, 2004
US Release: December 3, 2004
Directed by: Yimou Zhang
Starring: Ziyi Zhang , Takeshi Kaneshiro
PG-13
Running Time: 119 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $11,041,228
Directed by: Yimou Zhang
Starring: Ziyi Zhang , Takeshi Kaneshiro
PG-13
Running Time: 119 minutes
Domestic Box Office: $11,041,228
C+
This picture is so caught up in its own coolness that it never bothers to stop and allow you to sympathize.
The House of Flying Daggers is opening in December as Oscar bait, and will no doubt be considered for (at least) cinematography, set design, and possibly best foreign film; it deserves two of those three mentions, but unfortunately not much else. This Crouching Tiger-like action/romance comes from the same director as Hero, and it shows: it is visually appealing but emotionally flat, with a story that is never really there, and even the action becomes tiresome.
Even though the story to Hero (B) failed to engage me emotionally, I was taken in by its visual design and action sequences, which saved the production. Flying Daggers starts off running on similar grounds, with the possibility of carrying you visually even if you couldn?t care less about the characters. One of the problems here is that the flick requires you to suspend a certain level of disbelief, and after a while I couldn?t manage to.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero didn?t offer the most realistic action sequences, but with Crouching Tiger more so, the story and acting made up for that. Given the culture of these stories I was able to go along for the ride without saying, ?Hey, um, guys, that?s not possible?? in regard to the flying and whatnot. Here, while the action scenes are better choreographed than most action flicks, many scenes end up being too formulaic ? you can kind of tolerate it, but you know what?s going to happen. The characters get away with almost any type of action sequence they want to pull, whether it?s semi-believable or far from it, and this got a bit absurd for my taste.
The story is quite simple. Set at the end of the Tang Dynasty, two officers fall in love with the daughter of a recently deceased leader of The House of Flying Daggers. The young woman is a blind dancer who works in a prostitution ring at the Pivilion, and the two guys need to figure out who replaced the leader. Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), the main officer, decides to capture her for questioning, and wages an attack on his own men in doing so. He and the dead leader?s daughter are then sought after in a hunt and kill mission.
This is a very light-weighted story, and the problem is that nobody is given proper attention to make a personal connection. Jin is only briefly introduced as a womanizer who likes to fool around with girls, sometimes against their will; he can also be silly, but isn?t funny (or charming) when he tries to be (at least to me). The young woman (Zhang Ziyi from Crouching Tiger) isn?t even given as much of an intro as Jin, as all we know is that she?s blind, which left me caring very little about each of them as the hunt began.
Right from the start it is apparent that this is a visually oriented film, and sometimes such an approach works on me. A big chunk of a director?s job is deciding where to put the camera, and if he/she does that part really well, simply looking at the screen can be a marvel of its own. For a project like this, deciding what to fill each frame with in terms of design is another significant responsibility. And in terms of cinematography, set and costume designs, director Yimou Zhang did a fantastic job.
Unfortunately, Zhang paid a little too much attention to the visual aspect. Every film needs a consistent story to engage the viewer, and this picture is so caught up in its own coolness that it never bothers to stop and allow you to sympathize with anybody. If you haven?t noticed with my reviews of Motorcycle Diaries and Sideways, womanizer characters can play either way with me in terms of acceptance. The central character here isn?t as much of a goof as the supporting character in Motorcycle Diaries or as obnoxious as the character Jack in Sideways, but I did find Jin a little annoying at first, and underdeveloped.
I questioned why I should like him given his behavior toward women (and the general lack of information to begin with), and the story relies on his silliness to win you over. Having hated The Three Stooges and I Love Lucy with passion all my life, silly characters can really turn me off sometimes; and while I?ve seen more intolerable characters in my moviegoing days, Jin?s attempted charisma didn?t work on me (his demeanor is, in a way, like Lucy).
While not as drastic in this comparison, the beginning (with Jin crossing a line with a girl) reminded me a little of a subplot in the foreign film, Talk to Her. In that picture, a character ends up raping a hospital patient who?s in a coma, and the viewer is expected to care about the person who does it. While that film was terrifically directed and acted, I failed to get emotionally invested, especially for the rapist, and as a result I thought the film was simply okay (some people love it). Similarly (despite that Talk to Her took a lot longer to get to the raping), House of Flying Daggers was a little doomed right with that shaky setup.
The film?s action sequences can be a marvel at times, but the more it progressed it was harder for me to tolerate the ongoing formula. A character will shoot a bow-and-arrow across a 300-yard field in any random direction, and the arrow, without losing momentum, finds its way to the opposing characters, knocking them to the ground. Maybe I?m just spoiled by knowing the natural laws of gravity and force and can?t enjoy a splice of fantasy, but this consistent action pattern didn?t intrigue me (and it got really repetitive).
At a certain point (not too long into the film) I knew what was going to happen to the characters in these scenes, and while I didn?t see a few of the eventual plot notes coming, I really didn?t care. I never sided with any one of the thinly laced characters, and only went along with the show to see what, visually, the director would accomplish next. The film was even riding on a reasonable rating until it started becoming apparent that it really was a showcase for the eyes more so than the mind (and even the eyes weren?t being dazzled much).
House of Flying Daggers also has a rather awkward third act (trying to blend romance with action), and there were even a few spots when I felt it was going to end, and it didn?t. As the camera would slowly glide backwards from a scene, I was mentally chanting, ?Fade out, the end, YES!? in hopes of going home for the night, only to be disappointed that the story wasn?t over yet.
The film?s finale attempts to make a grand impression on you, and your reaction will depend on how much you were involved throughout the journey. Many of these characters could?ve experienced brutal deaths early on and I would?ve stared deadpan without any emotion, so that?s my answer right there. With that being said, I know people who love visual adventures like this and dig the kind of fight sequences that are offered here. I even have a friend who thinks I?m too critical toward these stories (more so martial arts flicks), and thinks I should just enjoy these movies for what they are. If this sounds like your cup of tea, it might be; otherwise, this is not a bad DVD rental when you can fast forward through anything with dialogue.
Even though the story to Hero (B) failed to engage me emotionally, I was taken in by its visual design and action sequences, which saved the production. Flying Daggers starts off running on similar grounds, with the possibility of carrying you visually even if you couldn?t care less about the characters. One of the problems here is that the flick requires you to suspend a certain level of disbelief, and after a while I couldn?t manage to.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero didn?t offer the most realistic action sequences, but with Crouching Tiger more so, the story and acting made up for that. Given the culture of these stories I was able to go along for the ride without saying, ?Hey, um, guys, that?s not possible?? in regard to the flying and whatnot. Here, while the action scenes are better choreographed than most action flicks, many scenes end up being too formulaic ? you can kind of tolerate it, but you know what?s going to happen. The characters get away with almost any type of action sequence they want to pull, whether it?s semi-believable or far from it, and this got a bit absurd for my taste.
The story is quite simple. Set at the end of the Tang Dynasty, two officers fall in love with the daughter of a recently deceased leader of The House of Flying Daggers. The young woman is a blind dancer who works in a prostitution ring at the Pivilion, and the two guys need to figure out who replaced the leader. Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), the main officer, decides to capture her for questioning, and wages an attack on his own men in doing so. He and the dead leader?s daughter are then sought after in a hunt and kill mission.
This is a very light-weighted story, and the problem is that nobody is given proper attention to make a personal connection. Jin is only briefly introduced as a womanizer who likes to fool around with girls, sometimes against their will; he can also be silly, but isn?t funny (or charming) when he tries to be (at least to me). The young woman (Zhang Ziyi from Crouching Tiger) isn?t even given as much of an intro as Jin, as all we know is that she?s blind, which left me caring very little about each of them as the hunt began.
Right from the start it is apparent that this is a visually oriented film, and sometimes such an approach works on me. A big chunk of a director?s job is deciding where to put the camera, and if he/she does that part really well, simply looking at the screen can be a marvel of its own. For a project like this, deciding what to fill each frame with in terms of design is another significant responsibility. And in terms of cinematography, set and costume designs, director Yimou Zhang did a fantastic job.
Unfortunately, Zhang paid a little too much attention to the visual aspect. Every film needs a consistent story to engage the viewer, and this picture is so caught up in its own coolness that it never bothers to stop and allow you to sympathize with anybody. If you haven?t noticed with my reviews of Motorcycle Diaries and Sideways, womanizer characters can play either way with me in terms of acceptance. The central character here isn?t as much of a goof as the supporting character in Motorcycle Diaries or as obnoxious as the character Jack in Sideways, but I did find Jin a little annoying at first, and underdeveloped.
I questioned why I should like him given his behavior toward women (and the general lack of information to begin with), and the story relies on his silliness to win you over. Having hated The Three Stooges and I Love Lucy with passion all my life, silly characters can really turn me off sometimes; and while I?ve seen more intolerable characters in my moviegoing days, Jin?s attempted charisma didn?t work on me (his demeanor is, in a way, like Lucy).
While not as drastic in this comparison, the beginning (with Jin crossing a line with a girl) reminded me a little of a subplot in the foreign film, Talk to Her. In that picture, a character ends up raping a hospital patient who?s in a coma, and the viewer is expected to care about the person who does it. While that film was terrifically directed and acted, I failed to get emotionally invested, especially for the rapist, and as a result I thought the film was simply okay (some people love it). Similarly (despite that Talk to Her took a lot longer to get to the raping), House of Flying Daggers was a little doomed right with that shaky setup.
The film?s action sequences can be a marvel at times, but the more it progressed it was harder for me to tolerate the ongoing formula. A character will shoot a bow-and-arrow across a 300-yard field in any random direction, and the arrow, without losing momentum, finds its way to the opposing characters, knocking them to the ground. Maybe I?m just spoiled by knowing the natural laws of gravity and force and can?t enjoy a splice of fantasy, but this consistent action pattern didn?t intrigue me (and it got really repetitive).
At a certain point (not too long into the film) I knew what was going to happen to the characters in these scenes, and while I didn?t see a few of the eventual plot notes coming, I really didn?t care. I never sided with any one of the thinly laced characters, and only went along with the show to see what, visually, the director would accomplish next. The film was even riding on a reasonable rating until it started becoming apparent that it really was a showcase for the eyes more so than the mind (and even the eyes weren?t being dazzled much).
House of Flying Daggers also has a rather awkward third act (trying to blend romance with action), and there were even a few spots when I felt it was going to end, and it didn?t. As the camera would slowly glide backwards from a scene, I was mentally chanting, ?Fade out, the end, YES!? in hopes of going home for the night, only to be disappointed that the story wasn?t over yet.
The film?s finale attempts to make a grand impression on you, and your reaction will depend on how much you were involved throughout the journey. Many of these characters could?ve experienced brutal deaths early on and I would?ve stared deadpan without any emotion, so that?s my answer right there. With that being said, I know people who love visual adventures like this and dig the kind of fight sequences that are offered here. I even have a friend who thinks I?m too critical toward these stories (more so martial arts flicks), and thinks I should just enjoy these movies for what they are. If this sounds like your cup of tea, it might be; otherwise, this is not a bad DVD rental when you can fast forward through anything with dialogue.
Lee's Grade: C+
Lee's Overall Grading: 3025 graded movies
| A | 0.4% | |
| B | 30.0% | |
| C | 61.7% | |
| D | 8.0% | |
| F | 0.0% |
