ioanaunteanu Things I've learned from the movie: A law enforcement officer can arrest a girl for wearing indecent clothes INSIDE a whorehouse; The same arrest can be dropped if the said girl performs an impressive dance for the officer; I'm serious, nobody thinks it's wrong; A blind girl can run through a forest (so a place with TREES) faster than two galloping horses; An enemy soldier will fall if hit with a stick no thicker than my finger; Enemy soldiers jumping from one bamboo tree to another will each throw at least 10 bamboo spears which are not visible during any of the tree jumping scenes; None of the above spears will hit the two main characters, even if they are a few meters away; A guy with a knife in his back will fight judo-style, land on his back at least three times, and the knife will remain there until it's time to be used in the dramatic final scene; The weather can change from sunny autumn to snowy mid winter in a few minutes because it's the dramatic final scene; The plot is masterful: A club of fighters/assassins/cool people with knives want the government to find their secret hideout. Their plan is to send an undercover agent for three years and the gorgeous girl for three days to convince the that they are, in fact, in that location. The gov becomes convinced only after some of its men were killed by another of its men; - The gov finally sends their best men to the hideout; The movie, however, ends before that final confrontation as deemed irrelevant?On the bright side, the costumes are gorgeous, and so is Ziyi Zhang (Sayuri from 'Memoirs of a Geisha').

SnoopyStyle The Tang Dynasty is weak and the House of Flying Daggers rebels have been stealing from the rich to give to the poor. The rebel leader has recently been killed. Local deputies Captain Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) are ordered to kill the new leader within ten days. Jin goes to be a client to the new blind dancer Mei (Zhang Ziyi) who is suspected to be the previous leader's daughter. Leo comes in to arrest both Jin and Mei. Jin breaks her out of prison hoping she would lead him to the House of Flying Daggers.There is no doubt that this is a visual delight. It is beautifully shot. There is a bit too much melodrama for me. I don't feel any connection to the love triangle. It takes over the movie and saps away my attention. It gets awkward and I stop caring. I can do without the convoluted soap opera but the movie is still very beautiful. In fact, the movie never stops looking beautiful even as the story grinds to a halt.

utdman4 I saw this movie about ten years ago I was sitting with my daughter and we watched the DVD' and I have to say we were both impressed probably more so with the stunning visual effects. Now I have read some of the reviews and was surprised by some of the negative ones' mostly directed at the actors and their lack of connection' sometimes people just miss the point. This movie was never gonna win anything for acting' its the story and cinematography that drive the movie something that far eastern directors and cinematographers can do better than any other people in the world. If you want an example just watch Titanic' a hundreds of millions of dollars to shot a boat hitting an iceberg while a love triangle unfolds that has nothing to do with the actual story of a piece of history, yet it get Oscars thrown at it. Yet the acting and dialogue, and script were poor, so its just a case of American cinema overrating poor movies and ignoring the real gems.

WakenPayne I wanted to see this movie for a while because I do enjoy the style of Wu Xia. I enjoyed Hero, Jade Warrior (although I don't think that can be counted because it's a Chinese/Finnish co-production) and I thought Crouching Tiger was okay. Impressed with Yimou Zhang's work I saw this and I actually think it's better than Hero.The plot is that in around 300BC China has this Robin Hood type group called The House Of Flying Daggers who steals from the rich to give to the poor among other criminal activities. A Soldier named Jin helps capture the former leader's blind daughter (Ziyi Zhang) but he falls in love with her and helps her to escape in order to find The House Of Flying Daggers. However it is an elaborate plot by the Chinese government to find the house and put an end to their criminal activities. However along the way things get more complicated then before.If there is any complaint with this movie it's that some of the twists and turns get very convoluted - I'm not going to reveal them but There is about 5 twists in 5 minutes at one point. It's almost like "Okay, enough!" I mean call it a nitpick but I think this movie could have been a little longer to spread these out.Aside from that I love almost everything else - I mean the cinematography isn't as good as Hero but I can see why it was nominated for the Oscar (I mean stuff like the final fight and the fight against the guards in the Bamboo forest - sorry if I screwed the term up is where it shines the best). The story is full of emotion and there is hardly a dumb moment in it. The acting is amazing, I have only seen Andy Lau in Infernal Affairs but he does a good job here and so does Ziyi Zhang and Takeshi Kaneshiro is very good as Jin. The editing in the fight scenes especially does get pretty choppy, I mean although I liked this more than Hero (yes, I said that) Hero does have the better fight scenes ONLY because they're better edited.I would say if you're a fan of this sort of movie - check it out. I mean out of all the Wu Xia films this is easily one of my favourites and definitely the best movie I've seen in a while. I'd say if you want to watch it for the beautiful looking Chinese country-side or the emotion put into the story then this is certainly one I'd recommend to you.