House of Flying Daggers
It probably best sums up my feelings towards this film that I've started this review about twelve times and keep deleting it because once I start with the "from the director of Hero" line it sends me off on a five-paragraph tangent about how great that film is and I kinda forget that this is meant to be a House of Flying Daggers review. So on my last attempt I have taken out as many Hero references as I can, and what's left is pretty much three disjointed paragraphs, but fuck it, that's all your getting.
Whilst choc-a-block with martial arts goodness, the film ends up focusing on the love story, (like Hero ), which weighs the final fight scenes with a lot more significance than previous ones. Not to say the other fights aren't great. There are a few very cool touches, like when the seasons change during an epic fight, and the now obligatory bamboo fight scene that has to be in every Chinese martial arts film is taken to a new level.
I think I was a little disappointed that House of Flying Daggers didn't have the classic feel of, say, um, well let's take Hero, which had a fable-like quality to it. Instead it felt a lot more convoluted as the film kept twisting to reveal a character's true alliance, and the true object of their love.
I liked it, and I enjoyed it, but there's no inkling to watch it again – or if I did, it'd be a ‘skip to the fight scenes' watch like a lot of people undoubtedly did with their Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon DVDs. House of Flying Daggers is a very pretty film with some amazing fight scenes, but for me it isn't much more than that. Hero, it aint.