House of Flying Daggers | 
| Director: Yimou Zhang
Actors: Ziyi Zhang, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Dandan Song, Hongfei Zhao
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
Buy Used: $1.28
You Save: $13.66 (91%)
New (50) Used (113) Collectible (4) from $1.28
Rating:  327 reviews
Sales Rank: 2698
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: Cantonese (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Published)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: COLD09178D
ISBN: 140497010X
UPC: 043396091788
EAN: 9781404970106
ASIN: B0007Q6VXC
Theatrical Release Date: January 14, 2005
Release Date: April 19, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
MEL IS AN EXOTIC, BEAUTIFUL BLIND DANCER, ASSOCIATED WITH A DANGEROUS REVOLUTIONARY GANG, KNOWN AS THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. CAPTURED BY OFFICERS OF THE DECADENT TANG DYNASTY, MEL FINDS HERSELF BOTH THREATENED - & ATTRACTED - TO THE MOST UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES.
Amazon.com
No one uses color like Chinese director Zhang Yimou--movies like Raise the Red Lantern or Hero, though different in tone and subject matter, are drenched in rich, luscious shades of red, blue, yellow, and green. House of Flying Daggers is no exception; if they weren't choreographed with such vigorous imagination, the spectacular action sequences would seem little more than an excuse for vivid hues rippling across the screen. Government officers Leo and Jin (Asian superstars Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) set out to destroy an underground rebellion called the House of Flying Daggers (named for their weapon of choice, a curved blade that swoops through the air like a boomerang). Their only chance to find the rebels is a blind women named Mei (Ziyi Zhang, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) who has some lethal kung fu moves of her own. In the guise of an aspiring rebel, Jin escorts Mei through gorgeous forests and fields that become bloody battlegrounds as soldiers try to kill them both. While arrows and spears of bamboo fly through the air, Mei, Jin, and Leo turn against each other in surprising ways, driven by passion and honor. Zhang's previous action/art film, Hero, sometimes sacrificed momentum for sheer visual beauty; House of Flying Daggers finds a more muscular balance of aesthetic splendor and dazzling swordplay. --Bret Fetzer
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| Customer Reviews: Read 322 more reviews...
 No Escape June 16, 2009
Sally (Montana)
No Escape
Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers is one of the most visually exciting, beautiful, and emotionally painful films I've ever seen. From his first images, Zhang plunges viewers into this romantic tragedy - a story full of mysterious twists, life and death action, intense color and design, unique use of sound and music, beautifully choreographed action, sensuality, wrenching conflict, passion and devastating loss.
The film is set in 850 AD during the Tang dynasty, when all of China was in chaos. Caught in this time of great political instability, three warriors find themselves not only fighting on opposing sides, but unexpectedly tangled in a fatal love triangle.
The film begins with a single, bold, bright red brush stroke sweeping diagonally across the bare parchment background. As it disappears, an identical stroke quickly follows from the opposite side, and fades. A drop of blood falls, like a musical note on an empty score. This marks the visual key for Zhang Yimou's drama that is masterfully supported by the film's cinematography, unusual score, and superb acting.
As the blood drops, Dai Ya's haunting bamboo flute melody is suddenly overcome by an ominous crescendo of yangqin dulcimers. The film's title appears, center screen, boxed like an official stamp in large, red Chinese characters - House of Flying Daggers. - Zhang turbulent, heart breaking tale.
As the story opens, the emperor of China is weak and ineffectual. Corruption and disorder are rampant. The country has split into numerous warring factions. One of the rebel groups fighting the government is the House of Flying Daggers secreted in a forest of timber bamboo. Because they have the support of the people, and their members have an almost magical skill with daggers and in martial arts, The House of Flying Daggers is a major threat to the government.
Two local police officers, Leo and Jin, are ordered by their general to find and kill the new leader of the House of Flying Daggers in ten days. Believing that the daughter of the recently assassinated rebel leader is the blind dancer, and rare beauty, hiding at the local brothel, Leo devises a plan for her capture. Jin is to go to the brothel, pretend to be drunk, and order the new girl, Mei, to dance for him.
Leo arrives after her dance. He pretends to arrest Jin for drunkenness. To see if the girl is really blind, Leo orders Mei to dance the Echo Game for him before he arrests her. She performs amazingly. This is one of the most extraordinary scenes in the film.
At police headquarters Leo threatens Mei with torture if she doesn't reveal the location of the House of Flying Daggers. Later that night as part of the ruse, Jin rescues Mei. He pretends to be tired of war and wants to escape with her. Leo calculates that she will lead Jin to the House of Flying Daggers while government soldiers secretly follow behind.
Leo warns Jin not to fall for Mei. She can be deceptive, Leo says. Jin, who has a reputation for seducing women, assures Leo, "I'm a free spirit. I'm always in control." Unconvinced, Leo orders Jin not to turn a game into reality and ruin their plan.
War isn't the real story in this film. It's the stage on which the personal dramas of these three characters are played. The war serves to divert, disrupt and endanger Jin and Mei's journey as they are drawn into more devastating personal struggles between loyalty and honor, and the real enemy - unnoticed and unsuspected until too late - true love, the assassin of all good intentions. Once struck, there is no escape.
Nature's beauty is as much a character in this film as are the humans. The wild meadow first deep in flower, and at the end, veiled in snow, which hosts choreographed battles for life, love and death. The woods of white birch against fallen red leaves through which Jin on his magnificent horse flies like the wind itself. Forests of ringed, timber bamboo with their hollow song and whispering leaves in which the lovers discover their true identities.
Zwang camera is often distracted away from human subjects to the pure graphic beauty of nature. Human characters, dressed in the intricate costumes of the period, appear like exotic blossoms, jewels, within these stunning natural patterns and colors.
House of Flying Daggers is also an unusually sensual film where physical attraction turns into something much deeper and with greater consequences.
When Leo shows Mei the torture she could face at the jail, his hands caress her face and arms and hands as a love's would. After Mei and Jin escape from jail, she bathes in a pool Jin makes for her. To hide her identity, he seductively dresses her in men's clothing. Later, Mei asks to know what her rescuer "looks" like. She kneels before Jin and runs her fingers delicately up over his hands, then his body to his face, to feel what kind of man he is. When they are captured by the soldiers, Mei reaches through the cage that imprisons them for Jin's hand. Again and again the camera closes in tight on their hands clasped together.
Touch, the messenger of love.
In the end, it isn't the war that matters most to these warriors, nor their political commitments. It's desire, jealousy and passion that are their real life and death battles.
 Caution: Beware of the Bluray version - poor video transfer May 31, 2009
S. Bergeron (Oswego, IL USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First, i loved this movie... the story, cinematography, etc. is up there and reflected in the dvd related reviews here... no argument there
i just rented the bluray version from blockbuster (i have a samsung bd-p2500 player) and noticed immediately 'pixel dancing' on the screen (i have a samsung 1080p dlp tv.. so the player and tv work very well together)
having worked with graphics some, my educated guess is that the bluray version appears to be a reprocessing of the dvd digital data. the resolution on screen is NOT at all at par with any other bluray disk i've viewed so far. it shows artefactual noise of digital image upscaling
if the dvd version is cheaper for this title, i'd select it over the bluray version as the latter is not genuinely high resolution.
Bad Transfer to Blu Ray April 11, 2009
Gift Card Recipient (San Matoe, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a good story, great effects etc- you can see all of that in the other reviews-- my issue is that I support those who say this transfer is LOUSY----I saw this picture twice in theaters and own the regular DVD--
I was excited in anticipation of the Blu Ray as the amazing color palette of the director should have jumped off the screen--
It is no better than the standard DVD and, in fact, looks washed out in some of what should be it's best scenes...
The producers of this Blu Ray should be lined up with Bernie Madoff and shot...
house of flying dagger's review April 8, 2009
Gabriel J. Zisk
This is my favorite Kung Fu foreign film. All the scenes are excently filmed and edited. The fighting is beautifal, and well coriegraphed. There is love story in it to give it a good plot so it is not just mindless violence. It has blood, but for a fighthing movie, the violence is well mantained, enough I would consider for the whole family. and yes, I cannot spell.
A must to have on Blu-ray March 20, 2009
Jason Mazzaro (NY, USA)
If you have a Blu-ray player this is really a must have; the movie is just stunning to watch and the music and sound is as well.
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