Review:
I knew by the conclusion of the first scene of The House of Flying Daggers that it was going to be a boring movie.
The first shot, actually, clued me in. The film begins in the interior of a police station in feudal China introducing us to one of the three central characters. Remember, this is a period piece, set in a psedo-mythical land of epic scope and grandeur. If not in the first shot, certainly in the first scene we need a feeling of expanse and the place where mortals and gods meet. Where do we begin? In the interior of a police station.
Furthermore, the film continues by using a convention popularized by the X-Files, spy versus spy films and the like: a slug line informing the audience of the specific location in which the present action is taking place (often a time is given as well). For example: Los Angeles, 12:43 a.m. It is inconsistent with the style of narrative to include such a specific notation of place. It doesn’t matter where this police station is. Nobody really cares either. Epics often occur at moments of historical significance, like the Arabic Desert in Lawrence of Arabia, but cinematic epics certainly don’t begin in the interior of police houses.
So much about this movie was wrong. The dialogue was simplistic and used simile and metaphor, intended to enhance the mythical elements of the story, badly. Sexual innuendoes were crass. I swear I noticed they reused the same shot for different scenes. The characters rode American thoroughbreds. The story was unbelievable, the love story was worse. And the big battle at the end of the film never happened (what happened to those soldiers?).
However, what was truly contemptible, something I haven’t mentioned yet, was the egregious plagiarism from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of my favorite films. Ziyi Zhang plays central characters in both films. Though she displays her physical prowess in both films, she is made to do such ridiculous things in The House of Flying Daggers it isn’t so much of a joy to watch. Moreover, if you played those movies side by side, you would notice a direct similarity in the order of scenes, transition to locations, character development, and conclusion. The stylistic considerations to the film were exceedingly similar as well as the fight sequences, music, and settings–all a cheap cash-in on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘s brilliance. The House of Flying Daggers even has a fight at the tops of bamboo trees! How awful is that!
While the one stellar aspect of the film–its use of color–stands out, The House of Flying Daggers is a poor reproduction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon hoping to lure the same audience. In my case, it worked.
I was bored by this film, and I have lost two hours of my life that I will never get back. If I save someone from this same fate, then I’ll feel better about seeing the film.
2 out of 7 stamps.