House of Flying Daggers

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Hong Kong English Template:Infobox film House of Flying Daggers (Template:Lang-zh) is a 2004 wuxia martial arts film from China,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, and Zhang Ziyi. It opened in limited release within the United States on 3 December 2004, in New York City and Los Angeles, and opened on additional screens throughout the country two weeks later. The film grossed $11,050,094 at the United States box office and went on to significantly overperform in home video market in the United States.<ref name="ReferenceA">Kaufman, Anthony. "Survivor: Niche island", Variety, Feb 6, 2006</ref>

The film was chosen as China's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for the year 2004, but was not nominated in that category. It did receive a nomination for Best Cinematography.

Plot

In AD 859, as the Tang dynasty declines, several rebel groups emerged. The largest of them is the House of Flying Daggers in Fengtian, who battle the corrupt government. Its members steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the locals' support. Two police officers, Leo and Jin, are ordered to kill the group leader within ten days, an impossible task given no one even knows the leader's identity.

They decided to infiltrate the House of Flying Daggers by interrogating Mei, a blind dancer suspected of being the previous leader's daughter, for more information. Jin patronise the brothel where Mei works as a dancer and asked for her. He later pretended to be drunk and attempted to rape Mei while Leo arrests Jin for his actions and Mei for indecency. The madame of the brothel requests Leo to free Mei as she is a skilled dancer in her brothel. Leo agrees that he would do so, but only if Mei does well in the "Echo dance." When the dance ends, Mei tries to kill Leo to avenge her father's death. Leo defeats Mei and arrests her to extract information about rebel leaders. Pretending to be a rebel sympathiser, Jin breaks Mei out of the jailhouse, gaining her trust. The two travel to the Flying Dagger headquarters, with Leo trailing behind with reinforcements. Slowly, Mei and Jin fall in love.

To enhance the deception, Leo and his policemen pretend to ambush the pair which the pair escaped. However, the pair was ambushed by soldiers. At a secret meeting, Leo explains to Jin that the military general has gotten involved after he reported to him about Mei, and he wants Jin and Mei dead. Jin is shocked and Leo sympathises with him. Jin "quits" his mission of seducing Mei but follows her out of his own volition. After Jin saves Mei from the soldiers, Mei initiates intimacy with Jin but Jin refuses as he is disturbed by the recent events.

A few days later, Jin and Mei are attacked again in a bamboo forest and almost killed, before the House of Flying Daggers saves them and takes them to their headquarters. Mei is revealed to have been faking her blindness and is not the former leader's daughter. Furthermore, she is engaged to Leo, who turns out to be the Flying Daggers' mole. The Flying Daggers planned to engage the military and lure the general and his army to them. The madame of the brothel was part of the Flying Daggers and had assisted in the trap. Leo who pretended to be captured by the Flying Daggers was released and allowed to meet Mei alone. The meeting starts with a blindfolded Leo performing an imitation of "Echo dance" with his daggers, with Mei as the master. While reminiscing about their past, Leo attempts to made advances on Mei but was rejected by her as she had fell in love with Jin. Leo was heartbroken, disappointed that Mei had fallen in love with Jin after three days while he had spent three years undercover. Leo attempted to rape Mei, but was interrupted by their superior Nia who gave them new assignments. Mei is ordered to execute Jin but frees him instead. Mei refuses to leave with Jin but chases after him later. Leo ambushed Mei and wounded her fatally. Jin returned to find Mei and found them, discovering the former relationship between the two and swears to avenge Mei by killing Leo. Leo blames Jin for falling in love with Mei leading to the current circumstances and they fought.

Evenly matched, Leo and Jin fight, leaving both badly wounded. As Leo attempts to kill Jin, Mei intervenes, threatening Leo with his own dagger, which is lodged in her body. Jin pleads with Mei to save herself. While the standoff continues, Leo pretends to throw his dagger at Jin, intending to die by Mei's dagger while sparing Jin. However, Mei pulls out the dagger lodged in her body and attempts to use it to intercept Leo's dagger in flight. Suffering from heavy blood loss, Mei dies while the two men survived. Leo left the scene while Jin cries over Mei's body.

Cast

Production

Anita Mui was originally cast for a major role but eventually declined due to her failing health before any of her scenes were filmed.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Mui died of cervical cancer shortly after.<ref name=":0" /> After her death on 30 December 2003, director Zhang Yimou decided to alter the script rather recasting her.<ref name=":0" /> The film is dedicated to her memory.<ref name=":0" />

To prepare for her role, Zhang Ziyi lived for two months with a blind girl who had lost her sight at the age of 12 because of a brain tumor. Takeshi Kaneshiro injured his leg when he went horseback riding. As a result, Yimou had Kaneshiro spend two scenes sitting or kneeling down to alleviate the pain, which was stated in Yimou's audio commentary.

Most of the film was shot in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains (the Hutsul Region National Park), such as the scenes in the snow or birch forests. The cast and production team spent 70 days on location from September to October 2003, and were largely based in Kosiv.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The notable bamboo forest sequences were filmed in China. However, due to the early snowfall, the filmmakers opted to alter the script and certain sequences, rather than wait for the snow to thaw, as the leaves were still on the trees. Zhang Yimou later stated that despite the unpredictable weather forcing the alterations, he had achieved the desired effect in the scenery, and was happy with the final result.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Like its predecessor Hero, House of Flying Daggers uses wuxing colour theory, in both a deliberate and ironic manner.

Literary origins

Template:Unreferenced section The film features the theme of a beautiful woman who brings woe to two men. This theme is borrowed from a famous poem written by the Han dynasty poet Li Yannian (Template:Lang):

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Traditional Chinese Simplified Chinese

Template:Lang

Template:Lang

Pinyin transcription English translation

Template:Transliteration

In the north there is a beauty; peerless and independent.
A glance from her will overthrow a city; another glance will overthrow a nation.
One would rather not know whether it will be a city or a nation that will be overthrown.
As it would be difficult to behold such a beauty again.

Release

Box office

House of Flying Daggers opened in North America on 3 December 2004 in 15 theatres. It grossed US$397,472 ($26,498 per screen) in its opening weekend. The film's total North American gross is $11,050,094. Afterwards, the film went on to earn at least 50% more in the United States home video market than at the theatrical box office.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

The film made an additional $81,751,003 elsewhere in the world, bringing its total worldwide box-office gross to $92,801,097. It was also the third-highest-grossing foreign-language film in the North American market in 2004.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Critical reception

House of Flying Daggers debuted in May at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival<ref name="festival-cannes.com">Template:Cite web</ref> to an enthusiastic reception.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The film reportedly received a 20-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival premiere.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

At film review aggregation website Metacritic, the film received an average score of 89 out of 100, based on 37 reviews.<ref name="meta">Template:Cite web</ref> Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 87%, based on reviews from 171 critics, and an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus states: "The visual splendor of the movie makes up for the weak story".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Metacritic also ranked the film at the end of the year as the fifth-best reviewed film of 2004.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Phil Hall of Film Threat wrote: "Quite simply, House of Flying Daggers is a film that sets several new standards for production and entertainment values. It is a wild riot of color, music, passion, action, mystery, pure old-fashioned thrills, and even dancing. With an endless supply of imagination and a kinetic force of nature in its amazing star Zhang Ziyi, House of Flying Daggers cuts all other films to shreds."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Desson Thomas of The Washington Post praised the director Zhang Yimou's use of color in the film as "simply the best in the world", and described the film as: "the slow-motion trajectory of a small bean, hurled from a police captain's hand, is a spectacular thing. It's a stunning, moving image, like a hummingbird caught in action."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> While Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised the film by stating: "House of Flying Daggers finds the great Chinese director at his most romantic in this thrilling martial arts epic that involves a conflict between love and duty carried out to its fullest expression."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

A. O. Scott of The New York Times described the film as: "A gorgeous entertainment, a feast of blood, passion, and silk brocade." The review also stated: "House of Flying Daggers for all its fire and beauty, may leave you a bit cold in the end."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars and states: "Forget about the plot, the characters, the intrigue, which are all splendid in House of Flying Daggers, and focus just on the visuals", and Ebert also states: "the film is so good to look at and listen to that, as with some operas, the story is almost beside the point, serving primarily to get us from one spectacular scene to another."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> House of Flying Daggers was placed at number 93 on SlantTemplate:'s best films of the 2000s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and ranked number 77 in EmpireTemplate:'s "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2024, Looper ranked it number 33 on its list of the "50 Best PG-13 Movies of All Time," writing "A film bursting with visual imagination, House of Flying Daggers is akin to a crash course in the qualities that define Zhang's radiant vision as a filmmaker."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Home media

In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by Template:Nowrap viewers on Channel 4 in 2007, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on British television.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was later watched by 600,000 viewers on Channel 4 in 2009, again making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on Channel 4.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Combined, the film drew a Template:Nowrap UK viewership on Channel 4 in 2007 and 2009.

Accolades

Won
Nominations

Soundtrack

{{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |{{#if: Template:Film date | Template:Short description}}}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=SoundtrackHouse of Flying DaggersShigeru UmebayashiTemplate:Film dateStage & Screen Classical49:37Edko Template:Small
Sony Template:SmallShigeru Umebayashix|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}} The soundtrack was produced and created by Shigeru Umebayashi, featuring vocals by Zhang Ziyi and Kathleen Battle. It was released in Hong Kong on 15 July 2004 by the film's production company and distributor Edko Films. The US version was released by Sony Music Entertainment on 7 December 2004.

  1. "Opening Title" – 0:58
  2. "Beauty Song" (佳人曲) – 2:32 (Zhang Ziyi)
  3. "The Echo Game" – 1:17
  4. The Peonyhouse – 1:22
  5. "Battle in the Forest" – 3:26
  6. "Taking Her Hand" – 1:14
  7. "Leo's Eyes" – 1:51
  8. "Lovers-Flower Garden" – 2:19
  9. "No Way Out" – 3:59
  10. "Lovers" – 1:54
  11. "Farewell No. 1" – 2:42
  12. "Bamboo Forest" – 2:36
  13. "Ambush in Ten Directions" (十面埋伏) – 2:01
  14. "Leo's Theme" – 2:36
  15. "Mei and Leo" – 3:06
  16. "The House of Flying Daggers" – 1:27
  17. "Lovers-Mei and Jin" – 4:21
  18. "Farewell No. 2" – 2:49
  19. "Until The End " – 2:55
  20. "Title Song Lovers" – 4:12 (Kathleen Battle)

See also

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References

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