Plot
A romantic police captain breaks a beautiful member of a rebel group out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.
Release Year: 2004
Rating: 7.6/10 (52,437 voted)
Critic's Score: 89/100
Director:
Yimou Zhang
Stars: Ziyi Zhang, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau
Storyline During the reign of the Tang dynasty in China, a secret organization called "The House of the Flying Daggers" rises and opposes the government. A police officer called Leo sends officer Jin to investigate a young dancer named Mei, claiming that she has ties to the "Flying Daggers". Leo arrests Mei, only to have Jin breaking her free in a plot to gain her trust and lead the police to the new leader of the secret organization. But things are far more complicated than they seem...
Writers: Bin Wang, Yimou Zhang
Cast: Takeshi Kaneshiro
-
Jin
Andy Lau
-
Leo
Ziyi Zhang
-
Xiao Mei
(as Zhang Ziyi)
Dandan Song
-
Yee
Hongfei Zhao
-
Performer
Jun Guo
-
Performer
Shu Zhang
-
Performer
Jiusheng Wang
-
Performer
Zhengyong Zhang
-
Performer
Yongxin Wang
-
Performer
Dong Liu
-
Performer
Qi Zi
-
Performer
Xuedong Qu
-
Performer
Liping Tian
-
Performer
Hongwei Zhao
-
Performer
Opening Weekend: CNY 55,000,000
(China)
(18 July 2004)
Gross: $11,041,228
(USA)
(3 April 2005)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
Australia:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Ziyi Zhang is not actually a trained martial artist, despite having been in many martial arts films. She is however a skilled dancer (joined the Beijing Dance Academy at age 11), like her character here, so she uses many dance moves in her fight sequences.
Goofs:
Anachronisms:
The music that the live musicians play during the drum duel scene, although beautiful, is not characteristic of classical Chinese music of that era.
Quotes: Jin:
Just call me Wind. Mei:
Wind? Jin:
I wander around all alone, come and go without a trace. Mei:
Like a carefree wind? Jin:
No, a playful wind.
User Review
Without a doubt, Hollywood is going down...
Rating: 10/10
I have never, ever seen a film that the West has ever created that can
top Chinese cinema in this form, with the exception possibly being Lord
of the Rings. I truly applaud Oriental taste. I can't count the number
of times I have completely forgotten that I've actually got my own
physical form while watching films like House of Flying Daggers, but I
can count how many times that's happened during Western films: zero.
For those of you who have no taste I beg you: but aside your views on
gravity-defying fight scenes and subtitles. Just remember that this is
something called FANTASY. It isn't real, no matter how much you wish it
to be. It's called cinema: you can do whatever the hell you like in
film. I don't complain when you've got aliens that spurt out your
chest. I don't complain when the dead rise from their graves. I don't
complain about the lack of reason behind the ideas that aliens would
have less intelligence than humans or that the living dead would
harbour grudges against the really living. I complain when it just
looks simply uninspiring and frankly visually boring.
So, Zhang Yimou, please bring on more heroes and flying daggers
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