House of Flying Daggers

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House of Flying Daggers
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Produced by William Kong
Zhang Yimou
Written by Feng Li
Bin Wang
Zhang Yimou
Starring Takeshi Kaneshiro
Zhang Ziyi
Andy Lau
Music by Shigeru Umebayashi
Cinematography Xiaoding Zhao
Editing by Long Cheng
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics (USA, Singapore)
Focus Features (Australia, France)
Warner Bros. (Japan, Philippines)
Pathé (UK theatrical)
20th Century Fox (UK DVD)
Release date(s) China July 16, 2004
USA December 3, 2004
UK December 26, 2004
Running time 119 min.
Country Flag of the People's Republic of China China
Language Mandarin
Budget $12,000,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

House of Flying Daggers (Chinese: 十面埋伏; pinyin: shí miàn mái fú), is a 2004 action/romance film directed by Zhang Yimou. The film is in the wuxia genre, similar in style to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero; and Warriors of Heaven and Earth. House of Flying Daggers differs from other wuxia films in that it is more of a love story than a martial arts film.

The use of strong colors is again a signature of Zhang. Several scenes in a bamboo forest completely fill the screen with green. Near the end of the film, a fight scene is set in a blizzard. The actors and blood are greatly highlighted on a whiteout background. Another scene uses bright yellow as a color theme. The costumes, props, and decorations were taken almost entirely from Chinese paintings of the period, adding authenticity to the look of the film.

The film opened in limited release within the United States on December 3, 2004, in New York and Los Angeles, and opened on additional screens throughout the country two weeks later.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The film is set in 859 AD. The once great Tang Dynasty is now in decline. Numerous rebel groups have formed, the largest of which is the House of Flying Daggers, based in Feng Tian county. The Flying Daggers steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the support of the locals.

The local deputies have managed to kill the leader of the Flying Daggers, but the rebel group only becomes stronger, due to a mysterious new leader. Jin and Leo, two police captains, are ordered to kill the new leader within ten days.

In order to accomplish this, they arrest Mei (小妹 Xiǎo Mèi), a blind dancer who is suspected of being the daughter of the old leader. While Mei is incarcerated, Jin and Leo decide to let her go to track the mastermind; Jin will pretend to be a lone warrior called Wind, and break her out of prison. This will gain her trust, and hopefully, Jin will be led to the headquarters of Flying Daggers. The plan works, but Mei and Jin fall in love on the way. They are followed at a distance by Leo; Jin and Leo meet secretly to discuss their plans. Jin jokes about his seduction of the girl; Leo warns him sternly against getting involved.

To add authenticity to the deception, Leo and his men ambush the pair: the fight is, however, a fake. Further on, they are attacked again, but this time their assailants are apparently for real: Jin and Mei battle for their lives, being saved only by the intervention of an unseen knife-thrower. Furious, Jin confronts Leo: Leo explains that he has reported the matter up the chain of command and his general has taken over the pursuit. Jin realizes that he is now expendable.

Once again, Jin and Mei are attacked by the General's men. They are hopelessly outnumbered; at the last minute they are saved when the House of Flying Daggers reveal themselves. Jin and Leo are captured and taken to their headquarters.

At this point, a number of surprising revelations are made. Mei is not blind, nor is she the old leader's daughter - she was merely pretending to be. Leo is in fact an undercover agent for the House of Flying Daggers, who have engineered the whole chain of events in order to draw the General into a decisive battle. Furthermore, Leo is in love with Mei: he has waited for three years for her whilst working undercover.

Mei, however, cannot bring herself to love Leo: over the last few days she has fallen for Jin. But as Jin is now a liability, she is ordered by Nia, the leader of the House of Flying Daggers, to kill him. Instead Mei takes him away then frees him: Jin begs Mei to flee with him, but she is torn between her love and her duty to the House, as well as guilt over Leo; Jin leaves alone.

In the final tragic scenes, Mei decides to ride after Jin, but is ambushed by Leo who is embittered by her rejection and consumed by jealousy for Jin. Leo throws daggers at her. Mei, not realizing that the daggers were doubled only managed to ward off one knife, while the other strikes her in the chest. As Mei lies dying, Jin returns to find Leo, and an epic battle of honor begins. The last scene sees Mei, regaining consciousness, grabbing the dagger in her chest and threatening to pull it out and to throw it in order to kill Leo if Leo kills Jin with his throwing dagger (this would kill Mei, as it would enable the blood to flow and cause her to bleed to death). Jin begs her not to do it, willing to die rather than let her be killed, but she continues to threaten to sacrifice her own life for Jin. Infuriated, Leo throws his arm out as if to throw a knife at Jin, and Mei rips the dagger out of her own heart to deflect it; she opted to try to deflect Leo's attack and save Jin rather than throw it at Leo and kill him in revenge. However, all her dagger does is deflect a droplet of blood, as Leo never threw his dagger. The implication is that if she is willing to die for Jin, Leo, despite his feelings for her, would rather she died. Removing the dagger from her chest causes Mei's death, and surmises her death as seemingly futile. Yet, the smile before her collapse signifies her knowledge that Leo will ultimately spare Jin's life on account of her sacrifice. In the final scene, Leo walks off into the blizzard as Jin holds Mei's lifeless body, singing the song originally sung by Mei at the beginning of the film in the Peony Pavillion.

[edit] Literary origins

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Some web browsers may not be able to view this correctly; you may see transcriptions in parentheses after the character, like this:
了(le)
instead of on top of the character as intended.

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 (李延年):

北(běi) 方(fāng) 有(yǒu) 佳(jiā) 人(rén)， 絕(jué) 世(shì) 而(ér) 獨(dú) 立(lì)。 一(yí) 顧(gù) 傾(qīng) 人(rén) 城(chéng)， 再(zài) 顧(gù) 傾(qīng) 人(rén) 國(guó)。 寧(nìng) 不(bù) 知(zhī) 傾(qīng) 城(chéng) 與(yǔ) 傾(qīng) 國(guó)。 佳(jiā) 人(rén) 難(nán) 再(zài) 得(dé)。

Traditional Chinese Simplified Chinese

北方有佳人，絕世而獨立。
一顧傾人城，再顧傾人國。
寧不知傾城與傾國。
佳人難再得。

北方有佳人，绝世而独立。
一顾倾人城，再顾倾人国。
宁不知倾城与倾国。
佳人难再得。
Pinyin transcription English translation from [1]

Běifāng yǒu jiārén, juéshì ér dúlì.
Yí gù qīng rén chéng, zài gù qīng rén guó.
Nìng bù zhī qīng chéng yǔ qīng guó.
Jiārén nán zài dé.

A rare beauty in the north, she's the finest lady on earth.
A glance from her, the whole city falls; a second glance leaves the whole nation in ruins.
There exists no city or nation, that has been more cherished
Than a beauty like this.

(See also external site with characters in images: simp. trad.)

[edit] Box office

House of Flying Daggers opened in North America on December 3, 2004 in 15 theatres. It grossed US$397,472 ($26,498 per screen) in its opening weekend. Expansions into wide release were somewhat less successful, although the film's total North American gross of $11,050,094 was respectable for a foreign-language film.

The film made an additional US$81,751,003 elsewhere in the world, bringing its total worldwide box office gross to $92,801,097. It was also the third hightest grossing foreign language film in the North America market in 2004 [2].

[edit] Reception

Despite receiving great acclaim from film critics in the U.S., the film and its director were fairly heavily criticized locally in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Many Chinese critics felt that the film lacked a strong storyline or message, that the dialogue was poor, and that Zhang was simply trying to appeal to Western audiences with heavily choreographed fight scenes and extensive use of computer-generated imagery. Zhang Yimou's previous films, including the critically acclaimed Raise the Red Lantern and The Story of Qiu Ju, were insightful and tragic dramas about the lives of everyday peasants in modern rural China, and even his previous foray into a martial arts film, Hero, had a strong underlying message about sacrifice and national identity.

Further criticism arose from the treatment of horses used in the film. Tripwires and other harmful measures were used to add realism to the fight scenes, harmful measures which are illegal in most Western countries but still permitted in Ukraine and China, where the motion picture was mostly filmed.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Won

[edit] Nominated

  • Academy Awards:
    • Best Cinematography (Xiaoding Zhao)
  • Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films:
    • Best Actress (Ziyi Zhang)
    • Best Costumes (Emi Wada)
    • Best Director (Yimou Zhang)
    • Best Fantasy Film
  • BAFTA Awards:
    • Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects (Angie Lam, Andy Brown, Kirsty Millar & Luke Hetherington)
    • Best Cinematography (Xiaoding Zhao)
    • Best Costume Design (Emi Wada)
    • Best Editing (Long Cheng)
    • Best Film not in the English Language (William Kong & Yimou Zhang)
    • Best Make Up/Hair (Lee-na Kwan, Xiaohai Yang & Siu-Mui Chau)
    • Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Ziyi Zhang)
    • Best Production Design (Tingxiao Huo)
    • Best Sound (Jing Tao & Roger Savage)

[edit] Production Notes

  • Anita Mui was originally cast for a major role, which was to be her final film appearance. She died of cervical cancer before any of her scenes were filmed. After her death on 30 December 2003, director Yimou Zhang decided to alter the script rather than find a replacement. The film is dedicated to her memory.
  • The scene in the snow was filmed in Ukraine, which, unlike China, has birch forests. It actually snowed so early (October) that the makers had to change the script and the film. They did not want to wait because the leaves were still on the trees. Zhang Yimou was very happy with how it turned out, however, because it set the perfect tone.
  • To prepare for her role, for two months Zhang Ziyi lived with a blind girl who had lost her sight at the age of twelve because of a brain tumor.
  • Andy Lau portrays a similar character in the film Infernal Affairs: an undercover Triad agent who infiltrates the police department.
  • Takeshi Kaneshiro injured his leg when he went horse-back riding. As a result, Zhang Yimou had Kaneshiro spend two scenes sitting or kneeling down in order to alleviate the pain, which was stated in Zhang Yimou's audio commentary.
  • Takeshi Kaneshiro & Andy Lau were to carry real broadswords in their duel scene. Zhang believes it will tell the audience that it is for real. Luckily Andy and Takeshi did not injure each other in the fight.
  • Zhang Yiumou admittedly stated in an audio commentary that he made a continuity error intentionally. In the final few seconds of the fight, the attacking soldiers fell to their deaths after their respective bamboo trees were cut off, and in the next shot, they fell on flat ground instead of the bamboo stakes. According to Yimou, the intentional filming error was done for the safety of the actors and stuntmen playing the soldiers.
  • The film's Chinese title (十面埋伏) literally means "Ambush from 10 sides". The figurative translation means "Ambush from all sides."

[edit] Cast

[edit] Crew

  • Directed by Zhang Yimou
  • Produced by Bill Kong, Zhang Yimou
  • Executive Producer — Zhang Weiping
  • Story by Zhang Yimou, Li Feng, Wang Bin
  • Screenplay by Li Feng, Zhang Yimou, Wang Bin
  • Director of Photography — Zhao Xiaoding
  • Action Director — Tony Ching Siu-Tung
  • Production Designed by Huo Tingxiao
  • Sound Designed by Tao Jing
  • Original Music Scored and Produced by Shigeru Umebayashi
  • Theme Song Performed by Kathleen Battle
  • Costume Designed by Emi Wada
  • Edited by Cheng Long
  • Associate Producer — Zhang Zhenyan

[edit] Production notes

Mandarin dialogue, available subtitled in English.

An Edko Films, Zhang Yimou Studio Production in collaboration with Beijing New Picture Film Co., Ltd.

MPAA rating: PG-13, for sequences of stylized martial arts violence, and some sexuality.

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Films directed by Zhang Yimou
Red Sorghum (1987) • Codename Cougar (1989) • Ju Dou (1990) • Raise the Red Lantern (1991) • The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) • To Live (1994) • Shanghai Triad (1995) • Keep Cool (1997) • The Road Home (1999) • Not One Less (1999) • Happy Times (2000) • Hero (2002) • House of Flying Daggers (2004) • Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005) • Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
v • d • e
Cinema of China