Every month Bil Antoniou curates an article picking a collection from The Criterion Channel and sorts its contents into categories – Must-See, Worthy, For The Curious and Skip It. This month the collection was A Tribute To Sony Pictures Classics.
House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004)
Dakota Arsenault: With the international success of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Western world was ready to lap up more films that featured unique fight sequences blended with stunning production design and costumes. Yimou, who already had a long and storied career in place, was the main benefactor of this heightened interest in Chinese action films. There is a rich history of Wuxia films, a genre of filmmaking that uses martial arts as a backdrop for historical dramas where a code of conduct controls the protagonist. A subgenre of the Wuxia movement is Wire Fu, which uses stunt rigging to propel the performers to have an almost superhuman ability to fight. House of Flying Daggers is a love triangle between Mei (Zhang Ziyi), a blind woman who is a rebel resistance fighter with the Flying Daggers, caught between two police Captains, Ji (Takeshi Kaneshiro), who goes undercover as Mei’s protector to learn about the Flying Dagger’s new leader, and Leo (Andy Lau), who watches from a distance with great interest. There are plenty of double crosses along the way as the plot thickens, but you’re likely watching the film for two reasons: Ziyi’s drum dance game performed at the Peony Pavilion brothel and the bamboo forest ambush. Both set-pieces show off the majesty of Wire Fu with jaw dropping choreography and impressive stunt work: sure, the CGI of the daggers zig zagging through the air is slightly less impressive now, but the rest of the action more than makes up for it. Like any great Chinese historical epic worth its salt, the use of colour, wardrobe, and elaborate sets are just as worthy of a viewing as the fight scenes are. Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography. Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Language Film from the Boston Film Critics; Best Foreign Film from the Los Angeles Film Critics; Best Director and Best Cinematography from the National Society of Film Critics; and Best Cinematography from the St. Louis Film Critics.
