POSTER FOR ZHANG YIMOU'S FILM "HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS"
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THE BEAUTIFUL & SESUOUS MEI PERFORMING " THE ECHO GAME" IN " HOUSE OF T FLYING DAGGERS "
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BLIND MEI PERFORMING " ECHO GAME " FOR CAPTAIN LEO IN " HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS"
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MEI & JIN/WIND PURSUED BY IMPERIAL TROOPS IN " HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS "( 2004)
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MEI & JIN / WIND AGAIN TRAPPED BY IMPERIAL SOLDIERS IN " HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS "
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MEI & JIN/WIND TRAPPED IN BAMBOO SPEARS IN " HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS "
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MEI & JIN/WIND HAVING FALLEN IN LOVE DESPITE THAT THEY ARE ENEMIES IN " HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS "
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Clip from "HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS"
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
(Shi Mian Mai Fu)
Genres: Action/Adventure and Art/Foreign
Running Time: 1 hr. 59 min.
Release Date: December 3rd, 2004 (LA/NY).
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of stylized martial arts violence, and some sexuality.
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Credited cast:
Takeshi Kaneshiro .... Captain Jin/ Wind
Andy Lau .... Captain Leo
Ziyi Zhang .... Mei
Dandan Song .... Madam Yee
Director – Zhang Yimou
Screenplay – Zhang, Li Feng & Wang Bin
Producers – Zhang & Bill Kong, Photography – Zhao Xiaoding
Music – Shigeru Umebayashi
Visual Effects Supervisor – Angie Lam, Visual Effects – Animal Logic Film (Supervisors – Andy Brown & Kirsty Miller), Digital Pictures Iloura & Mandford Electronic Art and Design Co, Production Design – Huo Tingxiao, Action Director – Tony Ching Siu-Tung. Production Company – Edko Films Ltd/Zhang Yimou Studio/Beijing New Picture Film Co Ltd.
Zhang Yimou proves again he knows how to tell a story turning each frame into something poetic & inredible. This is a great fantasy film . It is amazing to watch . The cinematography & costumes & settings are wondrous if you like. Like HERO the story slowly reveals more depth as the main characters struggle with their personal feelings which come into conflict with their sense of loyalty & honour. It is a story of heroism & loyalty & romance & has an operatic feel to it as did HERO. This is the lesser of the two films as the story is not as well fleshed out nor as much of a sweeping epic as HERO is. It is also more episodic in the way it unfolds whereas in the film Hero the narrative was related to the Emperor by the nameless Hero & we are presented different versions of what actually occurred.
The fight scenes are great feats of choreography & are played out as works of ballet & opera. The film also has the ambition of a Shakespearean tragedy.
The fight scenes are improbable but fascinating set pieces of warriors flying through a bamboo forest through golden fields or fighting while snow fall & swirls around the combatants.
Anyway here is the plot as it were:
The year is 859AD and China's once flourishing Tang Dynasty is in decline. Unrest is raging throughout the land, and the corrupt government is locked in battle with rebel armies that are forming in protest. The largest, and most prestigious of these is the 'House of Flying Daggers', which is growing ever more powerful under a mysterious new leader. Two local captains, Leo and Jin are ordered to capture the new leader and the two hatch an elaborate plan. Hearing that one of the assassins operates in guise as a courtesan at the Peony Pavilion. Jin goes in as a customer and asks to see the best girl, the blind Mei, while Leo pretends to burst in to stop his boorish behaviour. She dazzles him with her dance showing off her skill in what they call ‘ the echo game ‘ but then tries to kill him. He has her arrested, believing that she is the daughter of the Flying Daggers’ recently assassinated leader, who is reputed to be both blind and a martial arts master. Captain Jin will pretend to be a lone warrior called Wind and rescue the beautiful, blind revolutionary Mei, from prison, earning her trust and escorting her to the secret headquarters of the House of Flying Daggers. They are pursued by soldiers who pretend to try and kill them to add conviction to the escape. But as they travel, the mission is tested by the inflamed passions between Jin and Mei and then the news that the general has taken over and ordered the pursuing soldiers to kill them for real.
We later discover Leo knew Mei before & he is also in Love with her thereby creating a “ Love Triangle
which adds more to the opening scenes after repeated viewing .
The ‘Echo Game’ is a dazzling display of choreography of the mix of dance & martial arts( like an over the top Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly number). We are firmly placed in a world of fantasy of Grand Opera where colour sound & movement are used to create moments of drama of danger of fear of hate & of love. The love between Mei & Jin /Wind is the only thing of real value. But No one seems to be who they claim to be so it becomes difficult for Mei & Jin to come to terms with how they feel about each other since they are pawns in a bigger game. Their loyalty to their masters & their honour are at stake in a society which holds these values as more important than one’s personal feelings.
For more on this film see:
House of Flying Daggers
Cannes Film Festival site offers plot synopsis, articles, and video clips.
www.festival-cannes.fr/films/
www.moria.co.nz/fantasy/flyingdaggers.htm
From: www.filmthreat.com/Reviews
review by Stina Chyn
IMDb: House of Flying Daggers
www.imdb.com/title
Amazon.com: House of Flying Daggers (2005): DVD
www.amazon.com
www.apple.com
also see SENSES OF CINEMA
article on Zhang Yimou
by Mary Farquhar
www.sensesofcinema.com
AND:
Open Directory - Arts: Movies: Filmmaking: Directing: Directors: Zhang Yimou ...
dmoz.org/Arts/Movies .com
See You Later,
GORD.
